Brighton forward José Izquierdo says he is ‘patiently trying’ to make his return for the club as soon as possible.
Izquierdo endured a difficult second season with the Seagulls last year, with an injury-ravaged campaign restricting to just 18 appearances in all competitions and less than 1000 minutes of football.
The majority of his problems were because of a knee cartilage injury picked up during the 2018 World Cup, an injury that required surgery at the time and ruled him out of the beginning of the campaign.
He then suffered a tear in the same knee back in December, an injury which subsequently ruled him out for a further two months of the season.
A return in February was hardly a successful one, with him deciding in the summer that surgery was required on the problem again.
That’s seen him miss the beginning of the season once again, and he’s keen to get back as soon as possible to work under new manager Graham Potter.
“At the moment I am still in recovery, patiently trying my best to be able to return,” El Diario reports him saying.
“We are already doing a little field work with the necessary time; obviously, the team supports me in that.
“We are in a period of returning to the knee gradually adapting to the atmosphere, I am already doing work outside, but most of it happened inside in the gym, with all the hope, all the faith and the patience of being able to return.”
Like any long-term injury, one of the most significant barricades to get over is the strain that the recovery period can have on a player mentally.
It’s been no different for Izquierdo, who, after a frustrating year last year, has had to deal with another lengthy spell on the sidelines this year.
He admits it’s been a difficult period for him, but he’s tried to take the positives out of it regardless.
“Everything that has happened is complicated and frustrating, but there are always positive things that I hold on to,” he added.
“The mental issue I work with a person that I have a lot of confidence, we have been working for a year now, and it is trying to look for positive things in difficult times.
“There are times when you break down, and you always ask yourself the question that you should not, and that is why I, why it was my turn.
“Those are things that happen, it is a high-risk sport, and they are situations that can happen and there is a high margin that this will happen not only in games but in training, but well it happened to me, and the best way to take this is take out the positive things.”
