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From challenging himself to walk a few square yards of his own front room to making a virtual comeback on a digitised football pitch, George Johnston has offered a window into the unique physical and mental challenges he overcame during his time out of action at Wanderers.
Just over a year ago the former Liverpool and Feyenoord defender had to be helped from the pitch after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in a pre-season friendly at non-league Bamber Bridge.
But within a few weeks of an operation to repair the injury he was already setting targets, determined not to let the solitude of rehabilitation slow down his comeback.
Now back on the pitch and looking forward to resuming where he left off in League One, the 25-year-old spoke to The Bolton News about the long road back, and some of the people who helped him along the way.
“Right at the very start it was hard to even walk,” he said. “I had to keep myself going, so I measured out about three metres in my house and kept trying to race myself to see how fast I could do it, try and get my game back. It was playing against my own mind as much as anything.
“As soon as I did it, MJ Williams was just leaving the club, and he said to me straight away to break it down as much as possible, focus on goals and milestones, don’t look too far ahead and make sure you tick off every single one as you go along.
“It was good advice because once I was on the grass in November I wanted to get to Christmas, and after that it just flew by.”
Injured players will often report a feeling of detachment during long rehabilitation, the club operating normally around them but their team-mates keeping different hours, with completely different focus.
Johnston admits that watching from the side-lines as Ian Evatt’s squad prepared for games in which he knew he would not be involved was another mental hurdle, especially for someone who is usually in the centre of the dressing room banter.
“The timing of your day as an injured player is different to the fit lads, you don’t have as much time around the changing room with them,” he said. “When you do see them it’s in the gym, or them coming through to the physio room for treatment.
“We have some great physios, and the S&C guys are around a lot of the time, so you can have a laugh with them in between the work.
“Some days were different, we’d use the David Lloyd at Bolton to go swimming, break things up a bit.
“And I got some downtime, went away with the Missus in November and February. It was kind of worked in blocks, a few different physios rotating and doing something new, that’s how I kept myself going.
“Now it’s back again. The physios were brilliant, to be fair, and any banter I give them comes back on me.
“Now, whenever I misplace a pass in training it’s their fault. Whenever I do anything good, they’re taking the credit for getting me back on the pitch.
“Keeping yourself fired up is really important. I’d be trying for new PBs in the gym with the sort of weights I was lifting – and I started calling myself The Lion. Now it’s kind of attached. A few of the lads call me that now.
“As hard as it all was, I actually found bits of it enjoyable and that’s all down to the staff, the physios and the S&C lads. They were amazing.”
One turning point in the rehabilitation came 10 weeks after the operation when Johnston was able to see himself on a pitch once again, not in the standard sense, but in a way that screams ‘2024’.
“I saw a specialist in Manchester and one of the physios, Matt Donnelly, had a contact for a virtual reality place with a section of Astro Turf with screens around it,” he explained.
“I have the headset on and all I can see is a pitch, with balls coming to me from different angles as if it was the real thing.
“We’d be playing little mini-games, like a giant darts board where I’ve got to hit the bullseye or different numbers, or there was a football golf game.
“There was an attachment on my foot, so when you look down you have football boots on. And, honestly, just having that felt like I was back playing and picked me up.”
Johnston finally got the all-clear from specialists a few weeks before the end of last season but it was agreed that he would target the start of July for his full comeback.
“The place I was in, I wasn’t far away from being able to play,” he said. “I think from a selfish point of view getting to the play-offs had given me an extra three weeks of training, which I needed, instead of having the time off.
“I had a good break, about three or four weeks, but then came in a fortnight early to do some work with the strength and conditioning guys to get back up to speed before I met up with the lads.
“Now I feel pretty much 99 per cent back to normal now. There are a few aches here and there, which is to be expected, but I feel like myself.”
Though he was unable to affect things on the pitch at the end of last season, Johnston is still able to give a unique insight into what happened in the final months, which culminated with a desperately disappointing day at Wembley.
Injuries had kicked in, the likes of Nathan Baxter, Dion Charles and Ricardo Santos were either absent or patched up, and results became inconsistent.
Johnston felt morale take a hit but insists the environment since the players returned in pre-season at the start of this month has been something else entirely.
“Towards the end of last season I started travelling with the lads quite a lot – Barnsley, Blackpool and Wigan away, and they were all poor results,” he recalled. “You could see the lads were losing a bit of confidence they’d had when I’d been around the changing room.
“I know it could have happened at Peterborough but with about two weeks ago the odds were against us and it looked like play-offs.
“I was back in full training then and playing as the opposition team. Some of the stuff the lads were playing I had no doubt in my mind they were going to be fine, no team was going to live with it. But then what happened in the final, I was lost for words. I was devastated because I wanted to come back and play in a new league I’d not been in before.
“It was so demoralising. I know I didn’t play but it was hard to pick myself up immediately as well.
“Since we have been back, though, there is a different feel. I don’t know what it is, I think what happened has just made everyone that bit more determined or focussed. I haven’t felt anything quite like it.
“We know we have got quality, but I think there’s a different attitude. The lads really want it.”
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