'A real mental rollercoaster': Burnley's Jordan Beyer explains delay in his return from long-term injury

The centre-back hasn’t featured for the Clarets in over five months after suffering a knee injury during the game against Aston Villa on December 30.

A potential return had been on the cards around March time, but the German suffered another setback and will now not be fit until the start of next season.

“It’s been quite some time unfortunately,” Beyer told the club’s official website.

“I’d been struggling a bit with my knee and then at the Aston Villa game it basically came to a point where I just couldn’t continue, the pain was getting too much.

“To be honest if somebody told me I wouldn’t be playing one more game this season, I would have said ‘what are you talking about?’

“Unfortunately, that’s how it is at the moment. It was quite a serious injury I picked up in the end, there was a long time when we weren’t 100 per cent sure what it was. But now, I’m just trying to get fit for next season.”

Not only has Beyer suffered physically this season, the centre-back has also spoken about the mental toll of his niggly injury.

“It was really hard at the beginning because the doctors, everybody, couldn’t really put a time on it, how long it was going to take,” the 23-year-old added.

“That was really tough on me to accept because you just don’t know, you just have to see how the body works and every day when I wake up, I just hope ‘oh man, please let it be better, please let it be better’.

“It took a long time to find out what was the cause of my problems with my knee. I had meniscus surgery in October when I got injured against Luton. Everything was fine.

“Then in December, something happened with my bone, and it just took quite some time flying around all over Europe to get the diagnosis, seeing specialists.

“It maybe wasn’t tiring for my body, but it was mentally tiring to get on another flight, see another specialist, talk about another opinion, get another scan, get this done, that done again.

“It’s been a real mental rollercoaster for me, as I was quite near to being back, the end of March, early April but then things got a bit worse again unfortunately. I had a little setback.

“I tried everything to be back on the pitch for another time this season, but it just didn’t work out, it wasn’t possible with my knee.

“I feel really unhappy with it but unfortunately that’s part of the job sometimes, you can’t influence what’s happening in the body.”

Beyer added: “The mental part is a huge part of an injury in terms of getting better. As stupid as it sometimes sounds, you heal better when you’re feeling positive.

“I didn’t have big injuries before, I always had something small. Most of them were two weeks or something, niggles, a few tears but nothing really serious. I’ve never been out for so long.”