Swansea City hero Michu admits he still lives with the ankle pain that forced him to hang up his boots but says he's determined to once again reach the very top.
The Spaniard, who joined the Swans 10 years ago, lit up English football during a stunning debut season that saw him him net 22 goals in all competitions.
It was a run that famously inspired a young Erling Haaland, who's currently writing his own Premier League legacy at Manchester City.
“To have someone like Erling say that is an honour,” Michu told the Daily Telegraph. “If he noticed me, that's great.”
But he never quite reached the same heights after that campaign, eventually hanging up his boots five years later due to an ankle injury.
The pain is something he lives with to this day. "My right ankle is that of a 90-year-old," he said.
“I have chronic pain that I have to live with. There is no more treatment. I’ve had several operations, I don’t want to take any more pills and I don’t want to take much more medication.”
It's a problem that first arose shortly after his breakout campaign with the Swans, who loaned him out after a comparatively underwhelming second campaign.
“The second season I started to have the first discomfort in my ankle,” he remembers. “I went to Porto to have an operation with a Dutch doctor and I didn’t recover.
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"I went on loan to Napoli, to try to feel like a footballer again, but I didn’t succeed. I was looking forward to a change of scenery and trying out in a league like the Italian one, but things didn’t work out as I had hoped.
"Psychologically it was hard because I felt good mentally and with my legs, but there comes a time when this pain prevents you from reaching 100 per cent
“You see that you are a second late compared to your team-mates, and in professional football a second late is a lifetime.”
But while perhaps disappointed with how his playing career ended, the 36-year-old's passion for the game has been reinvigorated, with the former Real Oviedo star currently the sporting director at Burgos CF, who are currently top of the Spanish second division and seemingly pushing for what would be an unlikely promotion to the riches of La Liga.
Indeed, one way or the other, Michu is clearly determined to get back to the top table again soon.
“At Burgos I have the full confidence of the board, they let me work, it’s a humble team, with limited resources,” he added.
“But I have my eye on being the sporting director of a first division team.”
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