Callum O’Hare couldn’t contain his joy at being involved with the Sky Blues again, after he returned to action against Rotherham United.
The midfielder has spent 10 months on the bench after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury on Boxing Day 2022 against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
Months of rehabilitation finally allowed O’Hare to come off the bench at New York Stadium for the opening minutes in 2023.
O’Hare said it was “a terrible feeling most” when he was injured, but now he is looking forward to returning and playing in front of the Sky Blue team.
“It’s great to be back on the field.. It’s the best feeling in the world and it’s been a long time coming..
“It’s normal for me to go back there.. It’s just about finding your path and trying to create opportunities.. But clearly it wasn’t our day.
“It’s the worst feeling I’ve ever told my family, when you see people injured for a long time, I’ve never been injured or missed a game and I don’t understand that.
“But now I understand what they went through and it was the worst thing ever, especially when you look out the bike window while they’re all practicing outside.
“Especially last year, when they did really well and played in some big games.. That’s probably the worst..
“It’s hard to stay patient, but obviously you have to be patient with things like this.
“I still have work to do and I still need to be patient.. Obviously you can’t just play for a few minutes and then continue at full speed, you have to be patient and smart.
“To be honest, I can’t go to some games because it makes me depressed.. So I had to watch it at home because the screen at home was different.
“When you watch the players live, it’s even worse..”
“It’s a great feeling.. I mean, honestly, I miss them so much and playing in front of them..
“As footballers we play for the fans and I hadn’t seen them for a long time and it was difficult, but the reception was great.
“I can’t wait to play in front of my home fans again, to be honest that’s all I’ve been thinking about..”
“We have a good team.. We have great players.. I mean, once we start playing, we have to start compiling results and climbing the rankings.
“Training was really good and you could see straight away that we had great players so it was good.. And hopefully we can do some shows.
“Look what happened last year and we have to start doing it this year and you never know what can happen..”
“I haven’t talked much about anything.. To be honest, I told my agent, ‘Look, I’m injured and all I want to do is just focus on football, start playing again, get back physical fitness and when I come back we can start talking properly.
“You won’t understand unless you’re hurt..” All you want to do is play soccer.. So when you go to the gym every day, you don’t think about the contract, you just think about playing football, and now I’m back, I’m focused on my fitness and playing in front of the fans.. tomb.