Ex-Hearts star makes first appearance in 477 days after walking through 'hell' in arduous Swansea City injury
He picked up the injury at Swansea City and the former Hearts star has been battling back ever since.
A former Hearts star made his return from a nightmare ruptured Achilles injury at the weekend.
Josh Ginnelly has been with Swansea City since leaving Hearts in 2023, making his first outing of the season on Sunday in an FA Cup defeat to Southampton. It was his first outing since picking up his horror injury against Sheffield Wednesday in September 23, 477 days before his latest appearance.
Southampton won 3-0 on the night but boss Luke Williams was delighted to see Ginnelly back involved. The attacker joined Hearts in 2020 initially on loan from Preston North End, making the deal permanent in 2021 and staying until the end of the 22/23 season. Ginnelly featured 89 times with 22 goals and 13 assists.
Williams said: “Gino has had a very long journey back to fitness He has worked so hard and so that was a reward for him and all the work he and the medical staff have put in. He is a player we hope we will be able to see more of and include in the squad more often.
"He has got a lot of talent, and he has shown real mental strength to come through all the setbacks he has had. We were very pleased to see him out on the pitch, now we have to make sure we keep taking steps to get him in a place where he is ready to play regularly. That's the next challenge for him.
“We played against a very strong side, last season they were a top Championship side and they are now competing week in and week out against some of the best teams in the world. Of course we want to do better, there's no question about that. We wanted to do far better than we did.
"But the reality is we were not able to cope with the opposition when they attacked us, and we were not able to make big chances to score goals. We did not manage to cause them enough problems."
The ex-Jambo took to X to share his relief that the hellish experience was over. He said in response to a Swansea City post congratulating him on his return: “Thank you for your support throughout what has been hell. Time to get back to me.”