Despite realising he could be out for up to a year through injury, the Wellington Phoenix striker Paul Ifill hasn't lost his sense of humour.
Ifill ruptured his achilles tendon in the club's first win of the season when they beat Sydney in Wellington on Sunday.
After surgery on Monday he will have to undergo eight to 12 months of rehabilitation but the 34-year-old is determined to play again.
Ifill says the injury was a massive shock and at first he thought someone had trodden on him.
He says he went to push off then heard a bang and thought someone had trod on his Achilles.
It'll be the third successive year that Ifill has spent Christmas in a moon boot.
In 2011 he broke his leg playing against Newcastle Jets and last year he had an ankle operation around this time.
Ifill jokingly says with a history like that if he does make it back on the field for the Phoenix, he'll be telling coach Ernie Merricak he won't be playing in December.
