Former Preston North End loan favourite Sepp van den Berg has opened up on his fear after suffering an ankle injury with Schalke.
PNE would probably have loved to take Van den Berg back on loan again for this season.
The Liverpool talent spent 18 months on loan at PNE, shining both as a right wing back and right-sided centre back.
Van den Berg’s performances and his passion for North End made him a favourite at Deepdale, but Liverpool decided that another year at PNE wouldn’t aid his development.
Instead, Liverpool considered sending Van den Berg to Burnley or Blackburn Rovers, which would have really hurt PNE fans.
Fortunately, neither of those moves materialised as Van den Berg instead headed off to Germany to join Schalke.
Van den Berg was hoping for a positive season in the Bundesliga but his campaign took a turn in early October.
Van den Berg suffered a significant ankle injury in a 3-2 home defeat at the hands of Augsburg.
The defender hasn’t played since and has now opened up on his injury whilst speaking to Revier Sport in Germany.
Van den Berg admitted that he was trying not to think too much about how bad his injury looked because he was scared it would end up happening again down the line.
The 21-year-old even felt that he could get back training quickly because he simply didn’t realise how serious his injury was at the time.
Van den Berg added that he lost all of his muscle strength in his left leg and now has to build them all the way back up again.
That’s a long journey for Van den Berg, but he is trying to stay positive and come back better than before, with PNE fans no doubt hoping to see him fit and shining again soon.
“People say it looked bad,” said Van den Berg. “But I’m trying to forget that. If I thought about it too much, I might get a little scared of it happening again. Sure, my ankle was swollen and looking bad, but I felt like I could get back into training soon. Mentally, I hadn’t flipped the switch yet. Since then, my entire focus has been on getting back into team training.”
“Basically, after the operation, I lost all my muscle strength in my left leg and I have to build up those muscles again. I’m currently doing that. It’s all about the basics. But when I’m back on the pitch with the boys, I want to be better than before,” he added.