After nearly a year-long meticulous and often plodding rehab of his surgically repaired knee, Canadian international midfielder Liam Millar called his return to play with Hull City this week a “storybook ending” to a “roller coaster” recovery.
On Tuesday, 11 months after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament, Millar came off the bench in the second half and helped create Hull City’s equalizer in a 2-2 draw against Preston North End.
“Just to come on and impact that game the way that I did, it was the best possible situation for my first game back,” Millar said Thursday as he spoke to TSN from Hull City’s training facility in England.
Millar acknowledges he still isn’t completely “match fit” after practising for just one month and playing just one complete half. Hull City’s training and medical staff explained to Millar that for every month he was sidelined with his knee injury he needed to factor in one extra week of practice and game play for his whole body to feel its strongest.
The increasing practice and game load on Millar’s body comes at a time of growing urgency for his club and country, too. Hull sits 18th in the Championship and is trying to establish itself in England’s second division, while there’s competition for nearly every spot in Canada’s roster – especially Millar’s natural left-wing position.
Nonetheless, the Toronto native isn’t deterred. Millar maintains a mindfulness and calm about his healing and the work ahead because of the care and support he received over his recovery.
“I just can’t wait to keep playing and showing who I am after this injury,” he said.
Although he initially put up a positive front in the months immediately following his injury and surgery, Millar felt his emotions begin to turn when the incremental physical gains he made in rehab began to plateau.
Months before, he was a key piece for Jesse Marsch and Canada before and throughout the Copa América and parlayed that international form into a three-year deal with Hull.
Then all that momentum suddenly stopped when he tore his ACL in a game against Burnley on Oct. 23, 2024.
“When it first happened to me originally, I was very positive. I said to myself ‘I can’t change what’s happened to me, so what’s there for me to be sad about because I can’t change it?’ That’s how I looked at it for four months of my [rehab] where I was like ‘Let’s do this. I’m going to get back. Let’s do this,” Millar said.
“And then after four months when my rehab started to get to a standstill. My strength wasn’t improving, movement wasn’t improving, nothing was improving and I think the initial shock from the injury really hit me. That’s when I started to feel quite sad and be a little bit like ‘why me’ and that’s when I had a real difficult conversation with myself about who I want to become and what I need to do to achieve that.”
Millar credits his willingness to open up to his wife, Daniela, as his way through that difficult time.
“Until I sat down with her and was like, ‘Daniela I’m not okay, like I’m really not okay,’ until I said that I wasn’t able to get better,” Millar said. “She is someone I trust with my whole entire life.”
Apart from his wife, Millar says the constant support of the players and staff at Hull, as well as Marsch and fellow Canadian teammate Theo Bair, all became lodestars for him during his recovery journey. Bair would text and video call Millar constantly, while Marsch connected Millar with renowned British orthopaedic surgeon Andy Williams, who repaired Millar’s knee.
This past summer, while Millar did part of his rehab in Bologna, Italy, Marsch, who also lives in Italy, invited Millar and his family to stay with Canada’s coach and his family.
“I think tactics are the foundation of everything we do, but the relationships are what drives me and inspires me,” Marsch said this week as he prepared for Canada’s October friendlies against Australia in Montreal and Colombia in New Jersey. “These [Canadian] guys are really special. And I’ve had a strong bond with Liam from the start.”
Millar says he made sure to watch every single Canada game as he recovered. It’s a testament to Millar’s value to Marsch that he was selected for Canada’s October international friendlies before his Hull return. But sentiment alone is not going to get Millar back in Canada’s starting lineup or gift him a spot in next summer’s World Cup roster, and he knows that.
With his mind clearer, his knee feeling “fantastic,” and days away from travelling to meet up with his national team after a year away, Millar says he’s eager to take on the challenge of adding his talents into the competition to be Canada’s starting left winger.
“Obviously, the left-wing position has turned into a very competitive position. Ali Ahmed has done fantastic since I’ve been gone. I think he’s proved why he deserves to be in that team over and over again, I think he’s done great. It only [gives] me more fire and more energy to come back into this team and to prove why I believe I should be playing in that position,” Millar said.
“I’m going to go into that team with the same mindset: I’m going there to play; I’m not going there to sit on the bench and what not. I want to play. I want to be part of that team. I want to be the best version of myself and help the team as much as I can.”
