Bumps and bruises are part and parcel of the game but it's every professional footballer's worst nightmare when they sustain an injury that will rule them out of action for up to nine months.

That's what happened to Liam Chilvers just over a couple of weeks ago when the defensive stalwart ruptured his Achilles tendon in a freak incident in the warm-up prior to the victory away at Charlton Athletic.

Now following surgery to repair his damaged Achilles, the centre-half has started the long road back to fitness.

Liam spoke to PNE.Com earlier this week about how his rupture came about and the process of rehabilitation that he faces in the coming months.

In this exclusive interview, he said: "I'm not feeling too bad. It does feel like I haven't played football for ages because I'm used to training everyday, it's just over two weeks since I did and it feels like I haven't kicked a ball in months!

"I had done the whole warm-up and I was just knocking some longer balls to Youl and it was actually going to be the last one that I was going to knock back. I've controlled the ball, gone to strike it and as I have pushed off my right foot, there was a 'bang' noise and I felt something in my calf.

"I thought a ball had hit me on the back of my leg but when I turned round there wasn't a ball or a man within about 20 metres. I went to walk away but my foot dragged across the floor and then I thought to myself that there was something very wrong."

The medical team were on hand to treat Chilvers within moments and it didn't take too long for physio Matt Radcliffe to determine the extent of Liam's injury.

The former Arsenal trainee admits that the pain hurt even more when he was told of the severity, but he was just grateful that the incident occurred with experts present.

He added: "In all fairness, Matt knew what I'd done straight away when he assessed it. He tried to break it me as best as he could but it is never nice to be told that you are going to miss between six and nine months of football.

"I was shocked really and I didn't know what to do but obviously I had to accept that I was going to be out for a long time.

"Curtis Davies had done it quite recently and I watched him do his injury on the television. He was just running and suddenly he jumped up in the air like he had been shot and I remember turning round to my girlfriend and saying 'isn't it amazing how you can get an injury like that without doing anything'.

"Then two weeks later I had done the same thing! Luckily I did it on a football pitch because the experts have said that it could have gone at anytime and had I done it anywhere else then it might have been difficult to get the attention I needed. So I'm trying to look on the bright side of things."

The 26-year-old centre-back has not set himself any long-term targets as he acknowledges that the rehabilitation period will involve many steps and stages.

Chilvers continued: "It's been two weeks since I had the operation, I saw the specialist again on Saturday and he has changed angle of the cast that I am wearing. I've got to go and see him again in two weeks when he will change the cast angle once more and try to get my foot up to a right angle.

"Basically the specialists have got to see what my foot can do and how much it can move and take it stage by stage until it is back to normal.

"The doctor took the cast off my foot the other day and it didn't feel like it was my own because I hadn't actually controlled it for a couple of weeks. There's going to be a lot of confidence building involved in the rehab so it won't be easy but I've got good people around me.

"From the day I did the injury until the time I can start running, I'm looking at about five months. Hopefully it will all go according to plan and it won't take much longer than that.

"I'd been looking at holidays with my girlfriend for around June time but now it looks like I won't get that time off but maybe three weeks from now I might be able to get a week away somewhere. Otherwise it would work out at about a year-and-a-half without a holiday so I'm sure I can arrange something."

Chilvers also had time to praise the North End players, who have yet to be defeated in the four matches since he picked up the long-term injury.

"The lads have done brilliantly. At the end of the day it is a team game, we've had the player to come in who have taken my position and it's proved that we've needed the strength in depth that the Manager spoke about when he came in, especially in defence."