The Sheffield Wednesday midfielder, who arrived last summer from Ipswich Town, has grown sick of the sight of the Owls treatment room with a deep-seated hamstring problem suffered in early November sidelining him until recently.

In truth, the portents weren't exactly set fair when Miller picked up a separate injury early on in pre-season and the luckless nature of his campaign was exhibited last Saturday when he made his first-team comeback in the Owls' X-rated 5-0 hammering at relegation rivals Reading – the second year in succession that they have suffered a Madejski horror show.

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That said, the affable north-easterner was at least grateful for small mercies as he finally kissed goodbye to his injury torment which has seen him out of action since November 7.

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Miller, 31, who came on as a half-time sub in the shocker against the Royals, said: "It's been a bit of a nightmare season up to now, I missed 13 weeks and managed to train last week and this week.

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"But it's the longest time I've been injured and it's been so frustrating.

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"I was also injured in pre-season with a torn thigh muscle – i don't know whether it's bad luck or old age!

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"I've never had so many injuries previously – I'd been quite fortunate.

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"It was nice to get back on the pitch (at Reading), but the result was a shocker.

"No-one likes getting beat, especially in the manner we did, but at least I made my return."

Given the fact that he'd stayed relatively injury-free in his near 13-year professional career, which started at Hartlepool United in 1997, being on the crocked list and watching games from the stands has hit
Miller particularly hard.

To rub salt into the wounds, his lengthy absence prevented him from taking part in the Owls' two matches with former club Ipswich, occasions he was desperately looking forward to playing in with his time with the Tractor Boys– where he spent two spells – holding a special place in his heart.

Miller said: "It's a shame I missed both. It would have been nice to go to Portman Road, I had many good times and years there, having spent most of my career at the club.

"But it wasn't to be, that's what happens with injuries."
on his lengthy setback, Miller said: "After the QPR game, we had a week's training and we had no match that weekend because of international duties so we played a practice game.


"Marcus Tudgay turned the ball forward and the young keeper came running out. I sort of stretched to chip the ball over him and felt something in my hamstring.

"I thought: 'this is not right', although I'd not really had any muscle injuries before and just thought it was cramp or a spasm. I didn't know what it was.

"I hobbled off and was struggling and my worst fears were confirmed when I had the scan and had torn two of the muscles quite badly.

"It was a case of rest and then building up the gym work, working on my own on the bike with a lot of strength work using ropes.

"I had a couple of injections and also three isokinetic tests at the English Institute of Sport to see how much strength I'd lost.

"It's been so frustrating for I hate watching games. Hopefully, I'm over it now, I am feeling a lot better and want to play my part for the rest of the season – which is going to be a crucial time.

"I was pencilled in to play a reserve game last week, but it didn't happen. However, I played a half on Saturday and there was a reserve game this week, although I don't think the manager wanted any senior players playing in it.

"We haven't got the biggest of squads and I think he was wanting to keep everyone fresh."

Last Saturday was a wretched afternoon for the Owls, with their drubbing following on from their 6-0 humiliation against Reading in 2008-09. This made for an 11-0 Berkshire aggregate over two seasons, which prompted taunts from Royals fans of "Can we play you every week?"

Much soul-searching has followed in the aftermath, not to mention a long journey home, with the Owls players busy putting in the hard yards in training this week to get back in the good books of boss Alan
Irvine, who labelled the shocker as "unacceptable".

Miller is hoping to lift some of the gloom by re-acquainting himself with the goals trail, one of the chief reasons why former manager Brian Laws brought him to Hillsborough.

The midfielder, with a penchant for set-pieces while possessing prodigious heading ability, hit an incredible 20 goals at Hartlepool in 1999-2000, following up with 16 the next, while regularly breaking double figures at Ipswich.

But ahead of the win against Leicester, he had failed to trouble the scorers this season – an anomaly in his goal-laden career – and a few decisive strikes would certainly help to lift the mood at Hillsborough, particularly after last week's humbling.

Miller said: "Everyone has got to do their bit. Hopefully, I can start chipping in with a few goals, I've been known in the past as someone who gets goals, but injuries have hampered me a little bit.

"It would be nice to get a run of games and to pick up some goals, but points are the most important thing."

On a torturous team afternoon at Reading, Miller added: "We weren't expecting it. But it's been and gone now, we've had days to reflect on it and we've got to move on.

"We've come up with certain things and obviously, the manager wasn't happy.

"We all know where the problems were and that we just didn't perform.

"The goals we conceded were poor and we've looked at it to make sure it doesn't happen again."