The Tigers midfielder has been hit by a flurry of setbacks in his recovery from knee ligament surgery
Eliot Matazo was named on the bench against Millwall last month (Image: Tony King/Getty Images)
Liam Millar has revealed how he’s been helping Eliot Matazo through his many months of rehab as the Belgian midfielder looks to try and return before the end of the season.
Like Millar, Matazo has spent a significant amount of time sidelined with a serious knee ligament injury and faces a fight to return to Championship action before the end of the season.
Matazo has been out of action for more than 12 months and looked close to a return when he played 30 minutes for the club’s Under-21s in February, but ahead of a planned appearance against Sheffield United a few days later, he suffered a quad problem.
That looks set to keep him out until the end of this month at the earliest, with City planning on getting him up to speed for the start of next term.
Millar, who missed almost all of last season before returning early this term, was hit by a hamstring injury shortly after coming back, while Mo Belloumi has also faced two spells out this term, and he says he’s been trying to keep Matazo positive.
“What I tried to tell him is that it’s just all part of the process. I think the majority of people who come back from ACLs always pick up little injuries here and there, myself included. I picked up a hamstring injury, and Mo had a couple of hamstring injuries,” the Canadian winger told Hull Live.
“Elliot now has a quad injury, so I think just in general it’s just something that happens, and it’s just part of the process, so I’ve been telling him to just take it day by day, keep trying to do everything right. Eventually, when he is able to play games and get into a rhythm again, hopefully everything will just go back to normal for him.”
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! Latest Hull City news and analysis on our Hull Live FB page
Millar, who spent the international break away with Canada, has had his own struggles with form this season as he attempts to get back to where he was before his ACL injury against Burnley in October last season.
“I feel good. It wasn’t easy coming back from my knee,” the 26-year-old continued. “I felt like I started really well, and then my hamstring injury hit me. I was struggling to find some rhythm and stuff after that.
“It’s difficult when you’re coming in and out all the time, when you’ve been out of football for so long, and then you get back in, and then you get taken out of it again and then put back in. It’s not easy. For me, it’s just about making sure that I’m making the right decisions.
“When you’re out for so long, you can forget things that help you cope with these moments. In football, there’re gonna be moments where you’re playing really well, there’re also gonna be moments where you’re not playing so well, and I think when you’re out of football for so long, you just kind of forget things that help you in certain moments.
“I feel like that was my biggest problem, that I just forgot things that would help me when things are not going so well. The more I play, the more I train, the easier it gets for me to remember these things and what helps me, so I’m definitely feeling much better now.
“I feel like the last couple of games I’ve really been playing much better, and I just gotta keep this going and, because at the end of the day all I want to do is just help the team as much as possible, and I know that if I play well then I’m helping them as much as I can.”
Here at Hull Live , we are dedicated to bringing you the best Hull City coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group.
You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.