Leeds United's Adam Forshaw details 2019/20 vicious cycle and how surgery affected his mentality

The Leeds United midfielder began the season in fine form and helped bring a measure of control to Marcelo Bielsa’s possession-dominant style of play.

He was the link-up man at both ends of the pitch, helping Kalvin Phillips to smother opposition attacks and getting forward to support and supply Mateusz Klich, to do damage in the final third.

But after missing games against Barnsley and Derby County in September, Forshaw returned to action for 45 minutes at Charlton Athletic and in the very last of those, aggravated the hip problem.

What followed was a depressing and frustrating pattern, a vicious cycle of rehabbing, building up to training, eyeing potential comebacks and breaking down.

“At first I was obviously clinging onto the hope that I was going to get fit anyway, I didn’t know it would come to this in the end,” he told the YEP.

“I wasn’t too bad to be honest, in general. I love keeping fit and in shape, so even being in the gym, the pool, doing my rehab I was okay.

“But ultimately I wanted to play football again.

“I kept getting within a week, two weeks of full fitness and unfortunately I’d break down again. The longer it went on the more frustrating it got for me.”

Forshaw kept trying.

He flew to Dublin to speak to specialists and was told he should explore every avenue before going under the knife.

Leeds United’s head of medicine suspected that was the inevitable outcome, but Forshaw continued to come agonisingly close to recovering full fitness.

“Speaking with the physio now, he knew,” said Forshaw.

“He had an inkling at some point the hip would require surgery.

“The physio asked me a few times and it was me myself thinking I could rehab it and get back to a level. Unfortunately I never did.

“I got back into training once, for four or five days and got back into the squad for Charlton, where I came on for 45 minutes and unfortunately picked up the injury in the last minute of that game.

“From then on I was setting targets, to be back for certain games or to be in training at certain times but I would get within three, four, five days of a session and as I ramped up the rehab I broke down.

“We came to mid-December, January and I realised it was probably the only option in the end.”

During that time Forshaw’s Whites team-mates kept him company at the breakfast table at Thorp Arch and in the gym, his family kept his spirits up as best they could.

But the nightmare scenario for any footballer, watching a season pass him by – one that might yield promotion – began to take a toll.

“Like any injured player says, it can be quite a lonely place at times, all you want to do is play.

“I had the support of the lads, the physio staff and everyone around the place, they kept me going. My wife was unbelievable, she’s just so supportive.

“[But] she did say towards the end before I got my surgery that I was getting a little bit grumpy.”

The 28-year-old was beginning to worry that this might just be his body, his reality now, so Price, another who Forshaw credits as being ‘unbelievable’ in terms of the support he gave, sent the player away to clear his head.

When Forshaw returned, his mind was made up.

“We were running out of angles and ideas,” he said.

“Ultimately it was all my decision what I wanted to do.

“I was wary – even when I went over the Colorado it wasn’t nailed on I was definitely having the surgery until I went over and did the required tests.

“Once I got told I was having the surgery I was quite relieved. Once they told me there was certain damage and they could fix what was in there, they were adamant that was causing all my problems, it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders straight away. I knew it was going to fix me.”

On February 14 a smiling Forshaw posed for an Instagram picture to tell fans his surgery at the Steadman Clinic had gone well.

He’s still smiling. So is his wife, Yasmin.

“Since the surgery I’ve been a different person,” he said.

“My wife has said the same. She’s just relieved, she wants the best for me and the family and everything is great.

“I’m adamant now, I’m convinced I’ll be a different player now, this will all be behind me once I’m back fit. “

Forshaw does not yet know when he can return to football – no one does, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic that has halted the sport globally.

The initial plan was a comeback in time for next season’s original start date.

For now, he and the rest of the footballing world will keep a watching brief and respond accordingly.

All the while he’ll be ticking off the stages of his rehab.

“We don’t know when the season is going to commence and when next season is going to start now,” he said.

“I definitely like to think I’ll be fit for the start of next season anyway, that was the initial plan.

“The rehab has gone really well, I’m four and a half weeks post op now, doing really well, spending a lot of time in the pool doing aqua running, keeping fit.

“I’ll be off the crutches next week and hopefully I can really kick on.

“Who knows, we don’t know what the scenario is now, we’ll just take it week by week.”