Injured midfielder Tom Walsh hopes he will play for Inverness Caley Thistle again this season
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Tom Walsh says he is desperate to get back playing football again – and the idea of stepping back on to the Caledonian Stadium pitch is keeping him motivated in his recovery.
The 26-year-old has been out of action since Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s first match in last season’s play-offs away at Partick Thistle.
It quickly became apparent after a crunching tackle that something was wrong, and scans revealed multiple issues with his knee.
That gave him an expected recovery time of a year, but Walsh is still holding out hope that he may be able to feature this season.
“It’s a tough one to know when exactly I can come back, because it’s quite a severe injury,” he said.
“I was initially told a year, so anything before that would be a great bonus.
“I was back jogging pretty quickly and you start to think that you could be back in record time, but it needs time.
“I need to get back using the ball again to see how that is with the impact, so there’s still a long way to go but I really hope that I can get back asap because I’m desperate to play again.
“You’ve got to have a goal to work towards, and I’m doing my absolute best. I understand it will be tough, but I’m hopeful and working hard every day to make that the case.
“I think it’s important to set yourself goals that you can work towards.
“You need to go in every day with motivation to improve, and when you see that progress week-to-week, it gives you another lease of life.”
Having his livelihood taken away from him, even just temporarily, was always going to be a tough process for Walsh, but the reality of his situation sank in fairly quickly last May.
Walsh was then joined in the gym by a litany of teammates as Caley Thistle saw a full team of players on the sidelines earlier this season – but that allowed them to help each other through.
“It’s crazy looking back, because you obviously don’t know how bad it is in the moment,” Walsh recalled.
“It was a really tough impact in the actual challenge – a fair challenge, but it was really sore. I couldn’t move for the first few seconds, and then when I was off the park I tried to come back on.
“In my head I was wondering if I could run it off, but every few steps my leg collapsed, and that’s when I knew it was a bad one.
“I’m still in at the gym working hard to get back, and I’m definitely staying involved with the boys.
“Obviously it’s been really unfortunate how many injuries we’ve had. When boys get injured, they’re down, so it’s important that all of us picked each other up.
“When you know it’s long term, you can almost accept it mentally, but it’s tough for boys who might be out for six weeks.
“That’s mentally tough when they have already been involved, so there are different perspectives.
“Hopefully we get a fully fit squad soon. There have been a few decent results recently that will hopefully help us go on a good run.”
