Sydney FC captain Alex Wilkinson never contemplated a mid-season retirement during his long and lonely injury lay-off and is now ready to ease pressure on his team by helping spark a surge up the ladder.
Wilkinson, 38, has not played since Sydney's round-one loss to Melbourne Victory in early October, when he tore the joint that holds the left and right sides of the pelvis together.
The veteran defender resumed training with his teammates earlier this month and plays his first game back on Saturday evening, when eighth-place Sydney meet second-last Western United in Hobart.
"It's felt like a long time for me since the first game when I got injured. It hasn't been much fun on the sidelines," Wilkinson told reporters.
"Rehab can be pretty lonely at times. I'm really excited to be back involved."
The veteran defender turns 39 in August and is currently the third-oldest player in the league, sitting just outside the top 10 list of oldest players ever to feature in an A-League fixture.
Wilkinson has been taking a year-by-year approach to his career in recent seasons and is yet to make a call on whether he will play beyond the current campaign.
But the skipper insists he never questioned his immediate future when he suffered his long-term injury.
"Obviously I'm getting a little bit older now and you think about (your future) a lot more now than you did five or 10 years ago," he said
"(But) I always knew that the timeline of the injury would get me back with plenty of games to go (in the season).
"It was just a matter of going through the rehab and ticking the boxes and hopefully sticking to that timeline. The physios did a great job of managing me through that and hitting each milestone as it came up.
"There's plenty of points to play for and plenty of time left to make a good run up the table."
Wilkinson returns to a side crying out for leadership in defence.
Sydney have conceded the second-most goals of any A-League side and in their most recent game gave up a 2-0 lead to draw with Perth Glory 2-2.
"We know that we've been conceding too many goals," Wilkinson said.
"That's something as a whole squad that we're working on.
"Hopefully I can contribute to that when I come back."
Wilkinson said scrutiny of Steve Corica's position as coach was only natural given the side's precarious ladder position but that pressure could be eased with more consistency on the pitch.
"When teams aren't performing the way that they should be or the way that they're expected to, there's always speculation around the playing staff and the coaching staff," he said.
"I'm more than confident we can turn it around with the players we've got in the group and confident we can finish the season with a bang."
