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Doncaster Rovers: McDaid set for return after injury
At long last, after 18 months of misery, Sean McDaid is nearing a return to action.
And the defender is adamant – you can forget all about a loan move – his return can come at Doncaster Rovers.
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McDaid, 23, has not pulled on a Rovers shirt since April 2008 owing to some wretched luck on the injury front, beginning when he dislocated his knee in a practice match.
The Harrogate-born ace was then finally nearing a return last season only to break down in training before discovering he needed more surgery.
The full-back was left heartbroken by the shattering news, but the Yorkshireman can finally see light at the end of the tunnel following his long-awaited return to training and appearances in two practice games this month.
Manager Sean O'Driscoll is thought to be considering a loan move for his young defender, rather than throw him in at the deep end of Championship football – a level which McDaid is amazingly yet to experience.
The five-foot-six ace will stand by his manager's eventual decision, but admits it is an immediate return to the Doncaster first team that he dreams of.
Sizing up his comeback, McDaid told Yorkshire Sport: "All I've said all along is that I've been out for 18 months and I've been working hard for 18 months to get back in this team. That's the aim, but at the end of the day, it's down to the manager and if he wants to do that (a loan deal), you'd have to ask him.
"I haven't heard anything like that yet, I think that's just what he's said, but as long as I am playing in these practice games I am trying to get into the team.
"I have been working hard over the past 18 months to get into the Championship and that's what I want to do.
"I'm getting there and I played 45 minutes in another friendly this week.
"That's two friendlies now. I played half-an-hour against Sheffield United last week and then 45 minutes, so I am just building up each time I play.
"My reactions have been fine and I have been in training for about a month now.
"Next week I think we will have another practice match and hopefully I can get another 60 or 70 minutes in there."
Wherever and whenever McDaid makes his first team comeback, the defender admits he will forever feel indebted to manager O'Driscoll who still offered him a new deal despite being crocked last summer.
Along with a quintet of other Rovers players, former Leeds United player McDaid's contract had expired but Doncaster's manager showed his faith in the young defender by laying down terms for a year's extension. McDaid admits that after a year of hell, the club's new contract offer left him touched and seriously improved his mood.
"My deal was up last summer and the gaffer gave me a new contract," he said.
"I signed a year's contract and I will always be appreciative of that, especially as I have been injured.
"When I get back I want to repay the faith that he has shown in me and try and earn myself a new deal, but it's down to me to get back in the team first.
"There were six of us out of contract and I was the only one that got a new deal.
"You don't really get that faith sometimes in football so it was a massive confidence boost to keep working hard and keep working well with the people around me.
"It was a nice thing that and I think that no matter what happens, I will always remember that someone stood by me when I was having a torrid time with my injury."
And there is simply no denying how torrid that time was, with McDaid it has been one of the lowest periods of his life.
"It's been the worst time ever," he said.
"I've had that many ups and downs and about a year ago I thought I was coming back before I had a major setback.
"Now, though, I feel stronger than I have felt in the past 18 months and hopefully that will stand me in good stead.
"It's been a massive learning curve and it just makes you appreciate football that bit more.
"It's been horrendous for me and I think you have got to surround yourself with people like your family and those at the club, like the gaffer and the physio staff, they have been really good with me.
"You become a lot closer with people as they are the ones that help you through the dark days.
"It's been the worst time of my life really, as I was playing in the
side that got promoted and then to miss the first season of Championship football was just devastating.
"I've got a lot to make up for now."
The Rovers star knows there is a world of difference between practice games and the rough and tumble of the Championship but nevertheless for him it is just wonderful to be back.
"It's brilliant and that's the best feeling as I have been working hard and always working hard to get back in games," admitted McDaid.
"They were putting dates on me getting back and joining in training but obviously now it's about when I can try and force myself into the team."
And McDaid says he cannot wait for that day to come and the relief it will bring.
"That'll be massive and it will be a massive relief.
"As soon as I pull the kit back on on a Saturday, it will make all the torture of the last 18 months seem worthwhile.
"Then I can get my career back on track."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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