Harry Owen: Cardiff Met striker believes he feels fitter than before as he prepares for Archers return following lengthy injury spell

Cardiff Met forward Harry Owen is set to return to action for Cardiff Met following more than a year out side-lined with injury, after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in training.

The Gloucester-born player, who scored two goals in 18 Cymru Premier league appearances during the 2018-19 campaign, sustained the injury halfway through the season.

But the 24 year-old is confident that he is fitter now than he was before he picked up the injury, which can only be described as a freak accident.

“I probably feel fitter than I did before the injury happened, which is about 14 months ago now,” said Owen.

“The worst thing was I just fell over a football, so I went to cross the ball in and I kind of fell over it and my whole body was on my knee, so I did my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). So, unfortunately, it wasn’t the best of times.

“The pain wasn’t too bad, I did hear a big crunch and you don’t really want to hear that as a footballer.

“That’s probably the worst thing you want to hear, but I went to A&E and they let me know I had sprained it, so I was looking forward to maybe getting back in a couple of months, but then I had the MRI and they told me the bad news, that I had totally ruptured my ACL and I needed surgery.”

Owen is itching to get his season underway and reflected on what it means to him to be back involved with the squad ahead of the remainder of the campaign.

“Being back feels amazing,” he said.

“It’s obviously been a long, long time. Just being with the boys again, training again, it’s an amazing feeling – so I am just looking forward to the season ahead and getting started again.

“It has been a long time since I have kicked a ball. So in my head, originally I thought it may have been a sprain or something and then I just thought, okay this could be a bit serious because it started swelling up straight away.”

Under current circumstances, Owen has had to train on his own in order to get fit for the new season, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the season starting at a later date, has given him more time to get fit for the remainder of the campaign; as he looks to add firepower to the Archers attack, with Met currently sitting in seventh place in the league table after four games.

“It has been hard, everything has been that bit more difficult because of the coronavirus going around. There are, of course, pros and cons to it. Maybe the pros being the fact the season started a bit later, so I have had the opportunity to try and get fit.

“The negatives have been I’ve had to train on my own. I couldn’t really do training sessions or get amongst tackles, or anything like that, so it has been difficult, but coming back has been brilliant.

“Being back amongst the boys is great. I think the hardest part is mentally. Psychologically I have still got a little bit to go. That’s the step I am in now to prepare myself to return to action.”

The forward does have anxiety before playing due to the injury being in the back of his mind, but that is something which will take time, especially an injury as severe as the one Owen picked up at the beginning of 2019.

“When I am playing, it feels fine, but I think just before, I am a bit nervous doing a few things, but as soon as I train and get warmed up, I feel absolutely fine, which is a big bonus.

“I just need to keep going in training and hopefully it all plans out well”

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