This time last year, Paul Smyth had just returned to action for Leyton Orient following a spell on the sidelines after suffering a collapsed lung that doctors said could have killed him.
Fast forward 12 months and the winger was last month named EFL Player of the Year at the London Football Awards, following a magnificent run of form since his comeback.
“I had a rollercoaster season,” Smyth tells Standard Sport. “The first game I played was Salford. I felt my hamstring, tried to continue and it ended up popping. That kept me out for four months. I came back, then my other hamstring went.”
After his return to the team was disrupted by a toe injury, Smyth then sustained a more serious problem away to Mansfield last January.
He suffered a broken rib and a collapsed lung when two defenders fell on him as he tried to run between them.
“It was like a little sandwich and I felt a crack,” says Smyth, who drove home after the match but began to struggle to breathe and called his wife to take him to hospital. “I didn’t really think it was that serious. Then they told me that I could have potentially died.
“It was just one of those frustrating seasons. Every time I thought I had momentum I got slapped back down again. I went into a state of just not wanting to play football anymore.”
Smyth was out for five weeks, but since his return last March he has produced some of the finest football of his career.
The 25-year-old from Belfast is enjoying a blistering season in an Orient team that moved seven points clear at the top of League Two by beating Carlisle on Saturday. They have a game in hand on second-place Northampton and are on course for promotion under manager Richie Wellens.
“Once Richie Wellens came in, he gave us the licence to play and enjoy it,” says Smyth, who has ten goals this season. “He is implementing what he wants and that’s why we’re top.
“Last year was a tough year for me and this year I’m flying. I’m just cherishing every moment. As a kid, you don’t think of winning awards like this. It’s an honour.”
Perhaps the highlight of the past year for Smyth was a spectacular bicycle kick against Doncaster in October, which he not only scored but also teed up for himself. It went viral and led to calls in Northern Ireland for the forward, who earned the last of his three caps in June 2021, to be given an international recall.
Sometimes you can get too carried away and things can backfire.
“That goal was one of the biggest highlights,” he recalls fondly. “I had to watch it back to see how good a goal it was. I’m only 25 so I’ve still got a long time to go. My main focus is club level, and if international call-ups come then I’ll be proud.”
Orient visit seventh-place Salford City on Friday — the first of just eight matches that stand between them and a return to League One for the first time since 2015. Smyth, though, is not complacent.
“There are a couple of boys who do like talking about promotion and winning the league, but that’s not for me,” he says.
“I tell them to stop because I don’t like it. Sometimes you can get too carried away and things can backfire. I can be optimistic, just not around the boys. They can talk as much as they like when we win that trophy — if we do.”
