Niall Huggins has opened up on his really tough start at Sunderland.
Speaking to the club’s website, the defender admitted that he really doesn’t like the ‘injury-prone’ label that he has received in recent years.
York-born Huggins spent 12 years with Leeds United and made only one senior appearance before joining Sunderland on a free transfer in August 2021.
However, the full-back only managed four games in his first campaign on Wearside due to an injury that kept him out of action for over a year. Huggins went onto pick up more problems when he failed to feature following his comeback in November 2022 until the Championship play-offs six months later.
Huggins finally returned to full fitness this summer and has taken advantage of his availability, replacing Dennis Cirkin after he was sidelined last month.
The 22-year-old has now started Sunderland’s last four matches in the second tier and has begun to put his injuries behind him, though he has admitted that his recent struggles were the ‘hardest thing’.
“When you see and hear things, I never wanted to be labelled as injury prone,” Huggins told the club.
“I don’t think many people understand the actual extent of the weirdness of the injuries and how uncommon they were.
“I was travelling to London once a month to see a specialist and we never got an exact answer as to why this was happening. I spoke to a genetic specialist, I did probably every test you could ever think of which were body related, bone related. Everything came back how it should be which was a fit and healthy 21-year-old. There was never any outstanding thing which was the answer. That was probably the hardest thing to get over.
“You want to be available, but I just never got an answer as to why this was happening. That was the hardest thing to get my head around. Every time I did break down, it was just another case of ‘why is this happening?’
“It took a whole season and a bit to push past it. It’s not happened since which is good news.”
Will Niall Huggins keep his place in Sunderland’s starting XI?
Niall Huggins is pretty much guaranteed his spot in the Sunderland line-up while Dennis Cirkin and Aji Alese are in the treatment room, with both unlikely to return until after the international break.
This means Huggins could still have at least a few games to prove himself as Tony Mowbray‘s first choice left-back, though he is going to have to do a lot.
Cirkin was arguably one of Sunderland’s best players prior to his injury and has been exceptional since arriving from Tottenham Hotspur, while Alese also made a huge impact following his move from West Ham.
I think Huggins has done perfectly fine since coming back into the line-up, however I’m not sure how has done quite enough to keep his place against very strong competition.
What is great is that the club have three brilliant choices in that position, with Sunderland often struggling on either side of the defence in previous years.