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Matty Willock is working hard to make up for lost time at Gillingham.
The former Manchester United midfielder has been putting in triple sessions over the last few weeks after a forgettable start to his Gills career.
Willock’s late introduction against Doncaster in the FA Cup on Sunday was his first senior appearance for the club in three months, only his second in total.
Forty-five minutes against Bolton at the end of August had been his one and only appearance in a Gills shirt.
He had missed the first few weeks of the season with a hamstring injury but ended up fracturing a knee on his debut for the club against the Trotters.
It’s fair to say it’s been a frustrating time so far.
Willock said: “You just want to play and you feel useless as a footballer if you are just watching and in the gym.
“It was brilliant to be part of it (on Sunday). A lot of hard work has been done to get out there, working in the gym on my own, and it has been frustrating but I am buzzing to finally get back out there.
“I just need to get stronger now and I am doing loads of gym work, loads of extra running.
“The gaffer has given me extra sessions to do to get fit, three a day for the last two weeks.
“I’ve been in at 8.30am to do sessions with Jammo the fitness coach, then training, then sometimes extra runs and when the lads go home I do upper bodies or legs again.
“At the moment I am always the first in and last out but that is fine, that is normal when you are coming back. I need to do it. I need to get back fit so I am the same level as the boys or even fitter.”
More on the Gills;
Willock picked up the knee injury right at the end of the opening half against Bolton, revealing the nature of the problem for the first time.
He said: “I had only been back training for a couple of weeks after doing my hamstring and then played against Bolton. I went into a tackle right at the end of the half and the guy jumped into my knee, fracturing the patella bone.
“I had so much adrenaline from the game. I just thought it was sore and I didn’t think anything of it. It was the end of the half and I hobbled down the tunnel.
“My knee was killing me then and luckily the gaffer took me off. It was my first game back and 45 minutes was enough for me but later on that night my knee swelled up. I rang the physio and gaffer and said ‘something is wrong with my knee’.”
Willock ended up in a brace, which he got rid of in mid-October.
He played 65 minutes in a behind-closed-doors match against Peterborough last week with no damage done and was named in the squad for the Doncaster FA Cup game. Introduced as a stoppage-time substitute, he quickly got involved and blazed a chance over the bar.
Boss Steve Evans has bigged up the 23-year-old, but he wants the football to do the talking.
He said: “It is a good time to come back because the lads are doing well and everyone is confident. It would be brilliant to get a good run of games.
“I need to build up into league games. I have been out for so long and barely trained.
“I know everyone wants to see me back, I want to be back, but I don’t want to get injured rushing it and then be out for a long period of time.
“I don’t like to look too far ahead because I just want to be fit and ready.
“I have aimed for games before when I have been injured and I haven’t made it and been really disappointed, so I am just taking it every week as it comes now.”
