Livingston defender Ayo Obileye has opened up on the mental anguish of being sidelined through injury last season.
The 28-year-old centre-back suffered a knee ligament injury in early March during a 4-1 home loss to Hibs which saw him miss the remainder of the campaign.
And the former Queen of the South man admitted he was delighted to have played his first 90 minutes since that injury in their Viaplay Cup draw with Hamilton.
Obileye wasn’t available for the penalty shoot-out, which the Lions went on to lose, after feeling a tweak but he confessed it was a major milestone to play the entire contest.
He said: “I felt a twinge and I wanted to take a penalty but it was my first 90 minutes and I felt a bit sore. I was grateful to play the full game but I wanted to be a bit cautious. You don’t want to overdo it after so long without playing a full game.
“It was tough mentally because I’m up here alone. My missus comes up now and then and my family is from Africa and down south so I don’t really have many people up here - just my team-mates.
“With my rehab, I’m doing a lot of the same things everyday and it was just long, it was doing hours and hours.
“A lot of things go through your mind and you just want to play football because it’s something you’ve been doing for the last 10-15 years and it just stops.
“You can’t do a lot of things, you start putting on weight, it was hard but I’m a mentally strong person. It was a tough one because it was the first real injury of my career.”
He added: “When the physio did his tests, I didn’t feel pain and I felt everything was fine. Then he shook his head and he said that it wasn’t looking good. I thought ‘what have I done?’.
“They were worried it was my ACL but thankfully it was only my
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