Lee Tomlin has voiced his determination to get back to the "machine" he was at Cardiff City after admitting he had gone back to his "old self" over the last two years.
Tomlin was unstoppable under Neil Harris during that 2019/20 campaign, earning the club's Player of the Year award after almost single-handedly dragging the club into the play-offs with a series of stellar performances.
It came after Tomlin had, by and large, been frozen out under Harris' predecessor, Neil Warnock, with the player's future at the club seemingly up in the air.
But the playmaker shone during the back end of that campaign, with many Cardiff fans hoping that was just a taste of what was to come.
Following a setback with a groin and hip injury, though, Tomlin required surgery in October 2020 and he was never seen in a Cardiff shirt again.
It was a sad state of affairs for a player who promised so much. Mick McCarthy, and the club, ultimately decided it was best they cut ties with the 33-year-old back in October and his contract was terminated by mutual consent.
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The player has been taking some time for himself to get back to a place, both mentally and physically, where he feels he can operate at his best.
Tomlin has spoken openly in the past about his struggles with mental health, something which is obviously exacerbated by the problems he has encountered with injuries in recent years, but it now looks as if he is once again channelling a positive mindset.
And in a candid post on social media, he has vowed to get back to his best and fight to get his career back on track.
"In the past few months I've been waking up like it’s an accident," he wrote on Instagram.
"I’m back on this and getting to the place where I was two years ago.
"Life is full of ups and downs that’s part of life, but dealing with it is a different matter.
"We all deal with it in different ways, so I dealt with it by getting fit for the first time in my life properly and mentally I was a machine.
"But over the last two years I've gradually gone back to my old self and I don’t like it and only I can change that.
"So what I’m trying to say is do what YOU want to do in life that makes you happy and do what YOU want in life that you enjoy and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.
"Enjoy life we don’t have don’t have as much time as you think."
Tomlin has recently been in Dubai in a bid to ramp up his fitness levels.
He played 57 times for Cardiff City, scoring 11 goals and producing 11 assists.
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