Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi has had a very up and down couple of seasons as he broke through into the Chelsea first team squad.
Just as he was really starting to light it up and show what he was capable of, he got a serious Achilles injury and had to go on the long hard road to recovery, a recovery that involved rebuilding the muscles around the Achilles and takes time and confidence.
Chelsea have colossal Inter Milan defender ‘high’ on their list of summer targets, read more here.
The Blues youngster didn’t look himself for quite some time, and this season we have really seen the Hudson-Odoi that we were getting used to enjoying before he got injured.
The converted right wing-back (so far this season anyway), has been talking about this on the Chelsea website, and looking ahead to Chelsea’s upcoming Champions League knockout match against Atletico Madrid, and says he is ‘excited’ to be playing in it, and the lads have the mentality to go an win the game.
He said:
“That injury was definitely a nasty one for me as it took me a very, very long time to recover. It was one of those injuries where it takes maybe years to recover from because it’s just a big injury.
“You lose a lot of muscle in your calf, you definitely lose a bit of speed and stuff like that, so I’ve been working a lot with the team and my family members at home trying to get back to how I am right now – being fit and being able to sprint how I normally sprint, with the muscle back into my calf, which is a big thing.
“I’ve been working really hard off the pitch to try and get all my muscle and strength back and to get everything to how it was before I got my injury. Everyone has done superbly trying to get me back as quick as possible and I feel like I’m back to where I was.
“I’d never had a proper injury like that or never even had surgery prior to that so it was something that was new to me and definitely a big challenge. It was a big setback knowing that everything was going so well, with the Europa League semi-finals coming up and stuff, so it was hard but I tell myself that everything happens for a reason.
“God justifies everything that you do so I’m happy with where I am now and hopefully I keep growing and keep progressing.
“I’m really excited! [for the Champions League] It’s a massive game against Atletico, who we know are a big team and are doing really well this season. We want to go into that game with the mentality of trying to win and trying to get through to the next round.
“It will be a different game to what we were expecting, going to Romania instead of Spain, but it’s going to be big for us either way.
“We all know football is a crazy sport and it can go either way. You can be winning one minute and the next minute you’re losing, especially in the Champions League.
“Our aim is just to give it everything we’ve got and let’s see if we can make it through.”
