Sky Sports pundit Danny Higginbotham has revealed how happy he has been to see Everton’s Seamus Coleman make a full recovery from his huge injury blow after fearing the worst for him.
The Republic of Ireland international suffered a fractured leg back in the latter half of the 2016/17 season, a blow which kept him out of action until January 2018.
Since then he has reestablished himself as first choice on the right hand side of defence for both club and country and Higginbotham admitted he was chuffed to bits to see the 30-year-old manage to hit his previous heights.
He told Sky Sports News’ Match Centre (21/03, 11:21): “(On Coleman’s experience) It’s huge. He had an awful injury which thankfully he’s come back from and he seems to be doing well.
“Going forward he’s still a threat, he gets into good positions and creates opportunities for his teammates, it’s great he’s back now – he’s been back a while but when he got that injury you really felt for him.
“He’s come back and come back strong – he’ll be absolutely delighted.”
Opinion
No one wishes injury on any player and Coleman’s huge blow was a really sad sight not just for those at Goodison Park but for everyone in the Premier League. There are few better attacking full backs in the division and he is such an entertaining player to watch when in full flight, so when he was sidelined there would have been serious fears he would never manage to reproduce those sort of performances. Thankfully for the Toffees, the Republic of Ireland and football fans all over the world he has managed to come back confidently and there are no signs that he is suffering from any repercussions of his layoff. He might not have been on top of his game for the whole of this season but then again few Everton players have been. A sign of his career taking a downward turn or just a dip in form along with his teammates? Only time will tell.