A FORMER Accrington Stanley goalkeeper who claimed a surgeon's negligence left him training effectively one-handed has dropped his "hopeless" six-figure damages claim.

Alex Cisak, who appeared for the Reds more than 20 times in 2010 and 2011, was a Leicester City youth prospect when he injured his right wrist in early 2009.

Now with Championship table toppers Burnley, the 24-year-old claimed shoddy treatment caused ongoing problems and left him struggling four years later.

Blaming Leicester Hospital surgeon, Bhaskar Bhowal, he said he can make only a couple of saves in training before the pain in his wrist causes him to start letting balls past him.

At the High Court, he claimed massive damages from the surgeon, alleging negligence, but then dropped a case described as "hopeless" by a senior judge.

After two days of evidence from the surgeon, Mr Cisak and medical expert, Roger Helm, the Polish-born Australia youth international decided to drop his case and head back to Turf Moor.

Mr Cisak's central allegation had been that the surgeon was wrong to tell him he could go back to contact sport in May 2009 when the fracture was only 80 per cent healed.

However, there was evidence before the court that that was in line with a study performed by respected experts.

Earlier, Mr Cisak said he could train normally until Burnley's strikers start firing shots at him and the pain sets in.

He told the High Court: "If I get pain in my wrist, I start leaving balls, which obviously isn't very good for a goalkeeper. I'm taking painkillers. I'm training at 75 per cent of what I should be at. It has affected me.”

But the surgeon's barrister, John Whitting QC, said Mr Cisak's case was always doomed to fail.

He said: "The court had the opportunity to see Mr Bhowal and evaluate him as a

surgeon and an individual. He was obviously an honest, conscientious surgeon, doing his best for his patients.”

Describing the goalie's claim as "hopeless", he added: "It is far from clear that he has suffered any impairment of function to his playing ability."

The court had previously heard that Mr Cisak earned a clean sheet and "rave

reviews" on his only start for his new club this season.

The stopper said all of his saves in that match were with his left hand, but Mr Whitting said: "It is difficult to see how a goalkeeper playing at an extremely high level can get rave reviews if he could only use one arm."

Mr Justice Phillips said Mr Cisak should have dropped his claims against Mr Bhowal much earlier and ordered that he pick up the surgeon's considerable defence costs.