Just in: Mark Robins provides bruising progress report on Coventry City star

Just in: Mark Robins provides bruising progress report on Coventry City star

Coventry City star Callum O’Hare has overcome his first major psychological hurdle after being “whacked” in training as he looks to return to full fitness in the first team. The Sky Blues midfielder returned to full contract sessions with the rest of Mark Robins’ squad following the international break and already has the bruises to show for it.

O’Hare has been sidelined since Boxing Day last year when he suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament that required surgery. Now, nine months on, the 25-year-old is stepping up his fitness work and eyeing his comeback to full-time action. Team-mate Jamie Allen featured in his first senior game on Tuesday night at Cardiff since his summer heart scare, going on as a second half substitute despite not having played any match minutes with the Under-21s.

Robins plans to re-integrate him to the first team with minutes from the bench in the coming fixture schedule. So what’s the plan for O’Hare? Asked if he’ll get game time with the development squad before dipping back in from the bench, Robins said: “Callum’s a different kettle of fish. You’ll just have to bear with us on it because I’m not going to put a time frame on his return.

“He has to come back when he’s comfortable. There’s a lot of development, there’s a lot of elements that need to come together with Callum and I think it has to be on as much as our eyes and what we’re seeing. But you know, once he’s ticked all the boxes, once he’s done that then it is about just his confidence in games.”

Players often come up a psychological barrier when they return from such a big injury with concerns over the strength of the knee joint and whether the injury can stand up to full contact football. And given the fact that O’Hare was the most fouled forward in the Championship the season before last, he can expect to be in for a rough return.

However, Robins revealed that he’s already been knocked about by his own team-mates, saying: “He’s getting hit and is getting whacked in training. I think the first training session back he got a dead leg and he’s been training with a dead leg ever since. But that can only be a good thing in terms of the psychological side of it.

“But you know he’s a brilliant lad. You can see that he’s getting close and you can hear he’s getting closer because you can hear him now, and you know he’s getting noisier. He’s getting louder, which is great. It’s so great to hear. But I think it’s really difficult to sort of put any time frame on his return and probably a bit unfair as well. Everybody wants him back as quickly as possible but we have to make sure he’s right.”

Asked if O’Hare being whacked a couple of times in training suggests he has the character to overcome that psychological hurdle, the manager added: “Well, I think he’s getting there. It’s like everything else, it’s a process. So again, a you can ask me those questions, but you have got to ask him. That’s a question for him and we’ll only be able to answer that once he’s gone through the process.”