Manchester United defender Tyrell Malacia has opened up on his injury nightmare as he closes in on a return to full fitness after almost 18 months on the sidelines.
Malacia has not played since featuring for United since the final game of the 2022-23 season, where he lasted 90 minutes in a 2-1 win over Fulham at Old Trafford.
He returned to team training in September following a long spell out injured, which included multiple set-backs during his rehabilitation process.
The 25-year-old stepped up his recovery as he completed a 45-minute comeback for United's Under-21s against Huddersfield on Tuesday.
Malacia opened up on his past 18 months, telling The Athletic: 'I have a lot of patience but, in this process, I learned that I have more patience than every other person in the world at this moment.'
The Dutchman revealed he had to go to the Netherlands and Barcelona, Spain, to work with specialists in the second half of last season as United struggled to cope with an injury crisis and therefore could not give him additional care.
'We had a lot of injuries and my injury needed a lot of attention,' Malacia said. 'So with the medical part, at some point we decided, "OK, you need some extra people around you to help you, to be there working with you every day to focus only on you".'
Malacia had a tear in his left meniscus towards the end of the 2022-23 season and it was decided that summer he would undergo surgery.
But just weeks later the defender had an inflammation around the affected knee and he had to undergo yet another surgery to clear up small fragments of cartilage that were present around the meniscus.
'I had to start my rehab over, basically,' he added. 'I had one day to be disappointed and then I had to be like, "OK, we go again".'
Malacia added: 'At the end of the day, we want to do everything right, at the right time. We don't want to rush into things. It is going well, very well, now — step by step. Maybe it went a little bit too quickly before, so we've learned from that.'
On whether he would approach his recovery differently, he said: 'I think at the end of the day, everything I did, even if it was a mistake or something, I won’t even see it as a mistake because it’s a lesson.
'I think everything in life is already written for me. I had to go through this whole process to be where I’m at now, so I wouldn’t do anything different.'
Malacia's layoff became somewhat a mystery due to the lack of updates from United, with some conspiracy suggesting he had died, ran away with the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, whose whereabouts were unknown earlier this year as she deal with a cancer diagnosis away from the spotlight.
Some had even went as far as claiming he was arrested or entered a witness protection programme.
'No, nothing was true,' Malacia said. 'No, no. I've just been doing my rehab. Especially when I was in Holland, I was close to my family — so just training, family, sleeping; training, family, sleeping. The only thing I've done.'
On his long journey to recovery, the former Feyenoord star added: 'Of course, I've had some moments where I was like, "Oh, I'm getting tired of this". But there's no way I could ever give up. It's not my system, it's not in our family.'
United have been keen to their 2022 summer signing back in with full team training so as not to risk re-aggravation of a knee problem.
His absence has been as frustrating for him as it has been for coaches, with his expected return at the start of the year the reason why Sergio Reguilon's loan was cut short by former boss Erik ten Hag.
Malacia arrived from Feyenoord in July 2022 on a four-year deal for £12.9m, with the potential of a further £1.2m in add-ons.
In his first season at the club he made 39 appearances, filling in for Luke Shaw as the side finished third in the Premier League and won the Carabao Cup.