Reading FC star Jordan Obita revealed he almost called time on his career after his horror knee injury in 2017, writes Courtney Friday.

The 25-year-old, who scored the opener in Royals’ 2-1 win over Millwall last Saturday, confessed his recovery is nothing short of a miracle.

Obita endured several operations and took a two-week break from football where he mulled over the possibility of early retirement.

But the former academy graduate was persuaded not to give up by his family and has now returned to football, albeit limited to one game per week.

Speaking in-depth about his injury for the first time, Obita admitted: “Christmas last year (2018), I sat down in the physio room and I told the doctors that there was no point anymore and I’d tried everything.

“Every time I ran outside my knee would just swell up and I thought there was no point going for another operation because nothing was going to work.

“I would go and see the surgeon once or twice a month and even he couldn’t work out what was going on.

“I had a two-week break and sat down with my family. They told me it’s worth a shot, do it one more time and see what happens.

“I’m just happy it’s worked and I feel like I’ve kicked on.”

Obita was stretchered off of the field against Hull City in September 2017 following a crunching challenge.

It was later revealed he had damaged his ACL and would be out of action for some time.

Doctors believed the wing-back would only need one operation, but their initial efforts proved unsuccessful.

Luckily, a third and final operation appears to have mended the problem and Obita hopes he will soon be back to playing more regular first-team football.

He continued: “A miracle happened after the third operation and now I’m back.

“I’m probably stronger with my left knee now because it’s quite strong and tight.

“I have a routine every day which helps me play football and be free. If I don’t keep on top of it then it might not be as good as it should be.

“If we have a Saturday/Tuesday, the physios said it would probably be too much.

“In the coming weeks or months I’m going to try and get that into my body and hopefully I’ll come through it.”