Sunderland and ex-Leeds United youngster Niall Huggins explains the latest on his injuries and what's next

Niall Huggins has opened up on his injury-hit first season on Wearside, and says he is targeting a return for pre-season.
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The former Leeds United youngster made a significant impression in his first four appearances, impressing at both left back and right back.

However, the 21-year-old suffered a stress fracture of the back and though he had hoped to return to action last month, he experienced pain in his heels which have ruled out his chances of playing this season.

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Huggins spoke to Frankie Francis and Danny Collins as part of Sunderland's pre-match show on Good Friday as Sunderland went on to beat Shrewsbury Town 3-2 thanks to Nathan Broadhead's last-minute winner.

Sunderland full back Niall HugginsSunderland full back Niall Huggins
Sunderland full back Niall Huggins

Huggins said that despite the injuries he has loved his experiences at the club so far.

"I came here having not had the best off-season at Leeds, as I knew I wasn't going to be involved [with the first team]," he said.

"I was straight into pre-season here and maybe my body wasn't ready for the intensity [because of the difference to the training at Leeds].

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"But I loved it here straight away, the training was really good. I really enjoyed it against Blackpool and Wigan in the Carabao Cup, felt good [even though I was still building up fitness]. But at half time at Wigan my back just tightened up a bit, I thought it was just tightness and we kept going.

"I could feel it a bit in the next few weeks, and when I came on against Bolton to be honest my back was hurting a lot. I wanted to try and get through it and show what I can do.

"It sort of then settled a bit, which is something that can happen with stress fractures, I played against Cheltenham where we played some really good football in that game. It was my first proper game for me in front of a crowd because my Leeds debut was behind closed doors, and the fans were just unbelievable. I loved it.

"I was still probably only about 75% and then at Portsmouth, I just kind of knew.

"It's just been building back since then.

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"Then unfortunately, around March I wanted to get back. I started my running and maybe it was just a bit too early, so we got to about my fourth running session and I started getting some pain in my heels.

"We gave it a week and then when I spoke to the physios, I had a stress fracture in one ankle and the start of one in my other.

"It was just a complete freak [incident] really."

Huggins revealed that he will take the next step in his comeback next week, and said that he hopes he can have an interrupted recovery now that there is no pressure to try and get back to play this season.

"I'm planning to start doing some running on a special machine [that takes the weight off] next week in York and then after that I can start slowly running one session per week and build it up from there," he said.

"The plan is then to aim for pre-season, there's no rush now [in terms of this season]."