“It’s been like snakes and ladders,” says the midfielder Joe Morrell, detailing how a hellish 16 months has proved the most difficult duel of his career. An innocuous click in his left knee, a setback in the gym while on holiday in Miami and the onset of arthrofibrosis – a condition where scar tissue builds between joints – and suddenly 492 days have passed since his last appearance, for Portsmouth in a League One match at Oxford.
He had just celebrated his 100th game for the club en route to the Championship. “People are probably quite confused and think I have disappeared. Everyone forgets about you.”
