Portsmouth Wembley hero back among goals - after doctors warned he may not play for two years

Specialists delivered the chilling warning that Oli Hawkins may be unable to play for two years.

Now Pompey’s Wembley hero is back - and on Saturday netted a first goal for nine months.

The 31-year-old collected a serious heel injury during last summer’s pre-season, with doctors struggling to pinpoint an accurate timescale on a potential return but fearing long, long-term.

As it was, Hawkins was sidelined until mid-December, a ‘mentally tough’ period which also saw Gills boss Neil Harris replaced by Stephen Clemence.

Having returned to the starting line-up, the striker opened the scoring in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with relegation-threatened Forest Green Rovers.

It represented the seventh match of Hawkins’ comeback and, encouragingly, a maiden goal since April 2023.

And the man whose penalty won the Checkatrade Trophy for Pompey in March 2019 is relieved to finally be back on a football pitch once more.

Hawkins told Gillingham’s official website: ‘I missed playing while I was out injured. There really is no better feeling than when you are playing football.

‘I felt away from the team when I was injured, a lot of the time they are travelling to games and I'm not there, I've got to train on Saturday morning when they are away playing. I was by myself a lot of the time because I was, at some points, the only injured player. It was mentally tough.

‘There were times when I didn't see how I could play again. When I was out, I had specialists telling me it could be a year, two years, it could be three weeks, it could be two months, it could be anything.

‘You could wake up and it's gone. It's not gone for me yet, but I did what the experts said and I'm happy to be back playing.

‘I'm not sure how I did it, in the summer I might have worn a certain shoe, or done a certain thing, and once I came into training, put on a new pair of boots and did a straight line run, I've damaged it.

‘In the pre-season games I just knew there was something wrong with my foot and in Como I realised it was really, truly bad. It felt like I was walking with a stone in my shoe.

‘I couldn't get rid of that tearing feeling when I was about to run. I couldn't play with that feeling and that feeling lasted for four or five months.

‘Now I'm just enjoying being back.’

Hawkins joined Pompey from Dagenham & Redbridge in August 2017 and would total 18 goals in 96 appearances.

On occasions serving as a central defender, his most productive campaign was 2018-19, registering 10 goals and scoring the spot-kick which defeated Sunderland at Wembley in the Checkatrade Trophy final.

Released by Kenny Jackett in the summer of 2020, Hawkins later represented Ipswich and Mansfield, before joining Gillingham in January 2023.

The Gills, whose director of football is Jackett, are presently eighth in League Two after falling away following a bright start to the campaign.