BILLY GILMOUR has set his sights on a return to the Chelsea side following the international break after recovering from the knee injury that brought a premature end to his first campaign in the Premier League.
The Scot made 11 appearances for Frank Lampard’s side last term but was forced to go under the knife to cure a long-standing issue in the aftermath of the win over Crystal Place in July.
Gilmour has returned to training with Chelsea in recent days and will be part of the Scotland Under-21 squad that faces Croatia and Greece in European Championship qualifiers this month.
And the midfielder is determined to use his first fixtures of the season as the foundation to build upon as he looks to make an impact in the star-studded Blues side this term.
Gilmour told the Four Lads Had A Dream Podcast: “Ever since the Victory Shield days, I had to wear tape round my knee and I always felt that something was wrong. Since I came to Chelsea, I have had a problem with my knee at the end of the season.
“When it came to Crystal Palace, I felt something go in my knee in the first half. The adrenaline was helping me kick through it but you don’t think straight away ‘this is a bad injury’. You think ‘I have had a knock, I will be fine next week’.
“From that, I got told I had to go and have surgery on my meniscus. Andy Williams done my surgery, it all went well and I am back training with the team and away with the 21s to hopefully get game time.
“Coping was fine and obviously I had family around me. I was in crutches for four or five weeks so my family were helping me about the house. Going into training, everyone in the team was keeping my mind off the injury and talking about other stuff.
“I was always happy, the boys were very good with me when they saw me and talked about football and other stuff. That was good mentally. I was thinking about the injury all the time and that wasn’t a good thing, but I coped well.
“This was my first long-term injury and hopefully the last. Even the physios would speak to me every day and they would help me get back as quickly as possible.
“Hopefully when I come back after the international break I can start to kick on again, get over my injury and start playing games for the team. I can’t wait.”
*The exclusive interview with Billy Gilmour is Episode 27 of the Four Lads Had A Dream Podcast. It will be released on Friday and is available through iTunes, Acast, YouTube and Spotify. For more information visit www.gersnet.co.uk or follow @4ladshadadream on Twitter.
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