Jordan Amavi experienced some dark moments during his long recovery from a serious knee injury. In the months after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in November 2015, the Aston Villa left-back watched his club’s listless slide out of the Premier League unable to assist from his hospital bed, and then once free from his cast was required to restore the leg muscles that had wilted away through arduous exercise.
But one meeting at the rehabilitation centre of Saint-Raphael, in Amavi’s native France, provided perspective and fuel to fire his spirits. ‘I met a guy at the centre who was younger than me, and he had had his leg amputated,’ the 22-year-old explains to Sportsmail.