‘I didn’t know if I was going to continue my career’ – Lens’ Jonathan Gradit on recovery from leg break

‘I didn’t know if I was going to continue my career’ – Lens’ Jonathan Gradit on recovery from leg break Jonathan Gradit (33) has revelaed that he had doubts about being able to recover from a horrific leg break, sustained in training at the end of last November. The RC Lens squad were disturbed by the injury (notably because of the sound of it) sustained by their teammate, which came during a contact with Hamzat Ojediran, who has since left the club. It was a long way back for the veteran defender. Pierre Sage, manager at the time, had hoped for Gradit to return before the end of last season. A return date of April was hypothesised, but that came and went without Gradit returning to the pitch. And during his time on the treatment table, the Frenchman revealed that he had doubts of ever returning. “I went through difficult things from a personal point of view. There was a lot of solitude. I had to fight the negative thoughts. You also think the worst in these moments. Three months ago, I didn’t know if I was going to continue my career. I’m coming from far back. I will have to feed off these difficult moments in order to savour the end of my career,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday. Gradit, who returned for Lens in September, just before the international break, revealed that he even went to speak with sporting director Jean-Louis Léca to speak about a contract termination. That came in the summer when the defender wasn’t seeing signs of improvement. “I honestly thought that I was at the end of my career,” said Gradit. GFFN | Luke Entwistle