The Bristol City player that received standing ovation after Sunderland nightmare

Rob Atkinson has revealed he received a standing ovation from his Bristol City teammates as he steps up his recovery from his anterior cruciate ligament injury.

The 25-year-old suffered an ACL injury in the 1-1 draw against Sunderland back in mid-February, and is to miss the start of the 2023/24 season. He was one of the first names on the team sheet last year and in his absence, City’s form dipped a slight bit as they ha to reshuffle the pack.

Atkinson’s injury is expected to keep him sidelined for the next couple of months at least, and he will be tasked with breaking back in to the first-team. Nigel Pearson has reverted to a back-four and at the moment his preferred partnership looks to be new signing Rob Dickie and Zak Vyner, with competition from Raphael Araoye, among others who play in other positions but can play at centre-back.

“It’s certainly been a very tedious sort of rehab process,” said Atkinson to Robins TV when appearing as a commentator and pundit during their pre-season coverage.

“It’s been four-and-a-half months roughly, 20 weeks inside the gym. I’m glad to say I was outside for the first time, and it was nice to breathe in that Failand air, touch some grass and kick a football.”

The former Oxford United defender has been limited to work inside the High Performance Centre building, and has mainly done gym work. Eagle-eyed supporters will have seen Atkinson rehabbing when watching new signings be unveiled at the HPC for the first time, and that shows the length of work he’s put in to recover.

“The change of scenery is just incredible,” Atkinson added. Walking out and getting a bit of a standing ovation from the lads who are doing their warm up. It felt good to feel a footballer again, I felt like when I was in the gym I was grinding it out, but it was good to get outside.

“There’s still plenty of work to do, there’s getting out on the grass, and there’s actually competing in training. There is still a big bridge to gap there, and so a lot to do.”