Coventry midfielder Eccles has 'extra bone' in his leg

Ask any footballer and they will tell you injuries are just part and parcel of the job, but for Coventry City midfielder Josh Eccles his might well be a first.

The 25-year-old made his first appearance of the season last Saturday as a substitute in the goalless draw at Leicester City, having been sidelined while an extra bone grew in his left leg.

Eccles missed the whole of pre-season after picking up the injury in the second leg of the Sky Blues' play-off semi-final defeat by Sunderland in May.

"It was a bizarre injury. I managed to get a dead leg twice in the same place within five minutes of each other and I got forced off," he told BBC CWR.

"A dead leg takes two weeks maximum to recover, but it got to the third week and the pain was getting worse so I messaged the physio staff to get a scan.

"There was so much blood around the bone, the body's natural instinct is to start healing, and because it was so close to the bone the body thought it was bone that needed repairing so the blood turned into bone.

"So technically right now in my left leg there's an extra bone that's been growing for two months."

Coventry-born Eccles came through the club's academy, making his debut in an EFL Trophy tie as an 18-year-old, and has now made 162 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals.

He signed a new contract last November to keep him at the club until the end of the 2027-28 season and admitted the injury did worry him during the summer.

"It was really painful at the time and there wasn't a lot I could do in the off-season, even lifting my leg at the time was super-painful, but it's weird how it's suddenly healed and I'm not aware of it now," he added.

"With injuries you feel when the pain isn't going away, is this going to be for the rest of my career or will it affect me? But the more you train the more you forget about it and the pain has gone now so I'm back to normal.

"In my game I'm a bit aggressive but I thought this injury could stop me. But playing the other day I still had that aggressiveness in me and it'll always be a part of me."

Eccles appeared as a 76th-minute substitute in the draw at King Power Stadium and is now hoping to play a big part for Coventry in another Championship promotion push.

"It was a nice feeling [to play], a very strange one personally obviously having had the injury in the play-off game," he said.

"I don't think anyone expected it to be such a long injury and I had to miss pre-season, which set me back a bit, so it was great to get some minutes."

Eccles will be part of the Coventry squad for Saturday's Championship match at home to Birmingham City (12:30 BST).