It has been a welcome sight, seeing Sean Morrison standing on the Cardiff City touchline ahead of recent matches.
He travelled with the squad to the South Wales derby defeat at Swansea City and has been kitted out in the New Balance gear at home matches since then, too. More than eight months have passed since the ex-Bluebirds skipper was helped off the pitch up at Barnsley on that bitterly cold February evening up in Yorkshire.
An ACL rupture was confirmed and surgery loomed. Now on the other side, Morrison, 31, has ramped up his road to recovery markedly in recent months. He has back running and even taking in some boxing classes with a private personal trainer in his spare time to get himself back to peak condition.
Morrison has been on a return-to-play contract, which allows him to undergo his rehabilitation with Cardiff due to his contract expiring while he was out injured and the club having a duty of care to their players in such circumstances.
He has now got himself into a position whereby he is training with the Bluebirds and is even eyeing some game time during the upcoming World Cup break. It is understood he could even be in contention for the under-21s' game against Birmingham City on Monday afternoon.
"He has done unbelievable with his rehab," interim manager Mark Hudson said when asked about Morrison. "He has worked so hard to get himself in a position to be back on the grass and training. He looks good, he looks in good shape.
"Obviously, we speak regularly. He is pushing to get some minutes within the World Cup break, which is good, maybe with the under-21s. He has been training with the team. When he needs his extended sessions he will either go and do that individually or with the under-21s if they have got a bigger day."
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Hudson said there would be "conversations" about converting his return-to-play contract into an actual playing contract, potentially during the World Cup break.
"We will be in conversation the whole time," he added. "He has done so well to get where he is. He has been around the boys, because he has been injured they haven't seen so much of him. But he has dipped in with us and he has still got quite a few boxes to tick, but he is getting there."
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