Matt Jansen is hungry to re-establish himself as a footballer having returned to train with Blackburn.
One-time England hopeful desperate to make mark
Matt Jansen is hungry to re-establish himself as a footballer having had his appetite for the game whetted by a spell training with former club Blackburn.
The one-time England hopeful is training at Ewood Park in a bid to establish whether he is capable of making a return to professional football, having hung up his boots in the early stages of 2006.
Jansen, now 31, narrowly missed out on a place in England's 2002 World Cup squad, before a motorcycle accident in Rome left him with a brain haemorrhage.
The player made a full recovery after coming out of a coma but only hinted at the form he enjoyed in the early stages of his Blackburn career, with a move to Bolton - despite sparkling moments - failing to rejuvenate his spirits either.
Jansen flirted with the idea of resurrecting his career in America but in the past few months has engineered a return to Blackburn and while loath to get carried away as to where it might lead, he admits he is loving life back at Ewood Park.
Ready for return
"It feels great, different to before," he told
The Times. "I'm back there out of choice, whereas back then I was going into training every day hating it.
"After the accident and four years of trying to get back to where I was just before, in the England squad and so on, I became totally disillusioned.
"I was mentally exhausted at trying to live up to what I had been. Before the accident I loved going in to training every day, but, when I stopped, I thought I would never go back. I hated it that much.
"I don't know how far it will go. Blackburn have said it may take three months or even longer, but the important thing is that, having had that break, I'm not trying to live up to what I was before the accident, when I was in the England squad and so on.
"Maybe what happened - missing out on the World Cup and then having the accident and not getting back - was fate.
"But maybe it's fate that I go back to Blackburn, get a contract and start scoring goals again. Maybe my best years are behind me, I don't know. But I feel like I'm ready to give it another go."
