Sunderland defender Jordan Willis opens up on his long comeback from injury and how he's managed it

The 27-year-old ruptured his patella tendon at Shrewsbury Town in February 2021, after battling ongoing problems in his knee for much of the campaign up until that point.

Willis had initially been expected to miss six months of football but suffered further complications, with Sunderland extending his contract for another year to aid his recovery.

The central defender has been doing some work on the grass in recent weeks as he makes encouraging progress, and has opened up on his long spell on the sidelines in an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle.

The station's Total Sport programme on Wednesday night is dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of mental health, with Willis reflecting on the challenges of being sidelined for such an extended period.

In the interview, Willis discussed coming to terms with the severity of his initial injury and why he can now think more about a return to action: "Initially, you just worry about the injury and how long you're going to be out.

"Then you get the information back, take it on board, and it probably still hasn't fully sunk in yet. Then you have the surgery and you start to come back in, you feel that isolation a little bit when you're sat in the physio room and other lads are going out to train.

"It starts to set in then that this is you for however many months.

"It's obviously different for every injury, initially it was meant to be a six-month injury for me.

"After the second rupture it was difficult to get my head around at the same time, I managed it pretty early because of the simple fact that it was a career-threatening injury.

"For me it was kind of not worrying about the timeframe, and actually just worrying about getting back playing.

"In a sense, that made it easier not to worry about timeframes. Initially it took that pressure off in terms of that anxious feeling to get back playing, which don't get me wrong I definitely have that feeling back now [that I'm stepping up my recovery].

"For a while I just had to focus on getting it right before I could even think about being back on a football pitch."

During his recovery Willis dedicated time to some other projects alongside his rehab, including some analysis tasks set by former head coach Lee Johnson.

"It was really good of Lee, who came to me regularly whilst I was in the physio room to see how I was getting on," Willis explained.

"He mentioned quite early on that if I wanted to take up a role behind the scenes [I could], which I said I would definitely do.

"We gave it a few months while I got the basics of my rehab set up and then he had me doing some opposition scouting, just through video and then I held one of the meetings before one of the games. I held some of the meetings after the games as well after analysing our games, to show some of the good and the bad.

"That was really good and it was interesting to be fair, it can open your eyes a bit because as a player you think you know everything.

"Sitting down and writing points about it is different. As a defender, I know what the defender is meant to do and what the striker is meant to do, but then for the central midfielders, I know where I want them to be but noticing that is more difficult than I thought.

"That will help me a lot along the way and in the future potentially."

Willis also helped mentor a number of the club's academy players alongside Luke O'Nien, holding sessions in which the youngster could discuss any on and off-pitch concerns.

"It's always good, the main thing I find with the mentoring is that me and Luke are still learning from every session," Willis explained.

"The session is open, and we mainly do it around the time of the scholarship decisions, where they can come to us if they're struggling and it helps keep people on the right path.

"Luke and I have both been in that position so we can discuss that with them, I wasn't offered a scholarship at 16 with Birmingham City for example.

"I always say that one opinion is not everyone's opinion and that's been proven, I know so many players I played with who didn't get a scholarship and all of a sudden a team in the league above comes in.

"We try to help them and with off-the-pitch stuff too, it's an open book in terms of the session and nothing leaves the room."

Willis thanked the staff at the Academy of Light for their support, underlining how crucial they had been in offering variety in his rehab sessions to keep it fresh and keep him motivated.

"The support I've had from family, friends, staff here and team-mates has been amazing," he said.

"I've had Arby [Xhemajli] who had a long injury, we've been giving each other support throughout. He's always coming to see how I'm doing, and offering that support when I've had little setbacks.

"The medical staff have been amazing, and that's kept my head up.

"As a footballer you just want to play, so you do everything to get back playing, but that support gives you that little extra drive."