It was a dismal Saturday afternoon in October at the Coleraine Showgrounds when Bobby Burns was stretchered off withering in pain following a full-blooded collision with James McLaughlin.

It was a tackle which culminated in the on-loan Barrow player sustaining a broken tibia and fibula, another devastating set back in a promising career which had already brought several challenges.

Fast forward ten months to August 2021 and the smile etched on the 22-year old’s face couldn’t be wider as he lined up for his first competitive start since the injury against Dungannon Swifts at Stangmore Park, the first of thirty-eight in all competitions to date this season.

The Glens were made to work hard to secure a gritty 3-2 opening day win, but it was light work for Burns in comparison to the grueling rehabilitation he had to undergo from the double leg break which threatened to end his fledgling career before it had even really got going.

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“At the outset I wasn’t sure if I was 100% going to get back to playing ever again or how long I would be out for,” he admits.

“I was in hospital for three days after the injury, I had my leg put back in place and then the operation. They put an intramedullary nail in my knee down to my ankle which was a rod through which the bone healed around.

“They put bolts in to hold it in place. I couldn’t walk for three weeks and then I was on crutches for a long time,” Burns explains.

The full back, who has won seven caps for Northern Ireland’s Under 21 side, doesn’t shy away from just how difficult life was in the aftermath of the injury, “It was a horrific thing to go through and a very lonely process.

“The first few weeks were tough mentally. It happened on Halloween, so in the middle of lockdown and with the dark nights coming in you were just getting up every day and training upper body, I became good at chin ups as that was the only thing I could really do!”

In perfect synergy with the turn of the year, Burns’ recovery gathered momentum just as the weather improved, “Gradually I was able to do more leg exercises and the focus shifted to rebuilding the muscle in my left leg. I was more positive coming into 2021 as I was then on an anti-gravity treadmill coming into the spring and eventually, I was able to resume training in June.”

He says he is grateful for the support of so many in the football community, and Glentoran physio Gareth Robinson for helping him during such a difficult period, “He kept me focused on the present in my recovery and on ticking off milestones as I went along.”

Although he was a virtual ever present in Mick McDermott’s starting eleven up until Marcus Kane’s own return from a lengthily injury last month, the former Hearts ace conceded that he was still wary of suffering a similar setback, “Psychologically up until December how the leg would hold up was in my head in every tackle I went into, but thankfully I haven’t felt any pain with it and every week and every tackle I go into I get more confident.”

Burns is keen to make up for lost time after a long ten month injury lay off.

After such a long spell on the sidelines, Burns is enjoying being back on the pitch, for a club who he insists he owes a lot to, “One of the reasons I wanted to go back to Glentoran was to repay the faith those at the club had put in me. An injury like that makes you more grateful to be out playing and enjoying the atmosphere. Hopefully I can stay injury free and keep playing well.”

Now that he has put his fitness issues behind him, Burns’ focus is regaining his place and helping Glentoran maintain their push for a first league title since 2009, “It’s a very competitive squad and there’s lot of players in the squad who are at their peak and want to be playing.

“There is a relentless pressure to do well, and fans are demanding. It’s different to when I was at Glenavon where there was a lot of young lads and less pressure. It has been different being involved in a team competing at the higher end of the table.”

The versatile left back, who can also operate in midfield, was one of four players who arrived in the summer, and with three more additions in January, excitement around the Oval has reached fever pitch.

Yet, Burns maintains that the players are not getting carried away, “With the squad we have got we have to believe that we can win the league, but we have to take it one game at a time especially with the fixtures we have coming up.

“One of the reasons I came to Glentoran was with the ambition to win trophies and play in Europe, and I want to achieve those aims.”

Lauren McCann is an English and Spanish student at QUB and Sports Editor at The Scoop. Listen to her on The Sporty Scoop every Wednesday.

“I wasn’t 100% sure if I was going to get back playing”- Bobby Burns opens up on injury hell