Luckless Hewlett is still on long road to fitness
TOM Hewlett was in danger of becoming Burton Albion’s forgotten man even before he got started properly on his professional career.
But the 20-year-old striker now sees a light at the end of a long tunnel after a crippling double injury blow wiped out his first season as a professional – and will do so for much of the second.
The Brewers have not been lucky in terms of serious injuries in the last few years, with a string of ACL knee injuries and the ankle injury which cut short summer signing Louis Moult’s pre-season this year.
But no-one has been as unlucky as Hewlett, who followed up a broken leg with an ankle problem that also required surgery.
From Burton, Hewlett has made his way through the club’s academy and was starting to make waves. He signed his first professional deal in June 2020, along with Ciaran Gilligan and Teddy Sharman-Lowe, and made his debut as a substitute in the Football League Trophy tie against Peterborough United in the September.
A League One debut, albeit only for three minutes, followed in November against Northampton Town.
But Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had not long returned to the club in January this year when
Hewlett broke his leg in a training accident.
After getting out on the grass again in his recovery last week, Hewlett sat down with the club’s media team to reflect on a difficult year. “I dislocated my ankle and broke my fibula and that was just a freak, horrible accident,” he said. “That injury is fully healed now but, in the recovery, when I started running again, I felt aches and pains and at first I thought it was normal with coming back like that.
“But then I went and had a scan and it was a defect in my ankle, something to do with cartilage coming loose from the bone. “I had to have a second operation and now I’m recovered from that.
“It wasn’t nice but injuries are part and parcel of the game. Coming on to another injury I was thinking ‘this isn’t happening for me.’
“To be perfectly honest, it’s been a tough few months, mentally. As a young boy, I’m only 20, having two back-to-back nasty injuries has been hard to deal with. “There have been some down days but, mostly, it’s been tunnel vision, trying to get myself back where I need to be because I’m hungry for work and I want to be back playing football.”
Hewlett says he has been encouraged all the way by more senior players, notably Kane Hemmings and Moult.
“When I had my second injury, Louis Moult had just started at the club and I did most of my injury and gym work with him,” said Hewlett.
The vision in my head, because I’m a Burton fan, is that I want to play for this club. Tom Hewlett
“It was really good to be in the gym with him and he’s really helped me in terms of keeping my head and staying focused.
“The boys talk to me all the time. They’ll tell me to make sure I rest and give my body time, which I find hard, because I always like to be on the go.”
Luckily for Hewlett, being in the gym was not especially a hardship.
“I like gym work, so that wasn’t a problem for me,” he said.
“I’m putting in as much effort as I can outside of football, looking after my body, stretching, all that kind of stuff, so that when I am back on the grass I’m ready to do the full session.
“The gym work is important. As long as you put the maximum effort into that stuff it’s going to help.”
Looking ahead, Hewlett’s motivation is to follow Hemmings as a home town boy scoring goals for the club he supports.
“The vision in my head, because I’m a Burton fan, is that I want to play for this club,” he said.
“I’ve made it all the way through the academy and I want to score goals for the club and enjoy my football here. I love the club and I keep hold of that vision.
“I now have to have about two months on the grass before I go back into full training, so I hope I’ll be back into training late January, early February, fingers crossed, if everything goes well.
“Then I’ll have to get my match sharpness back and if that means going out on loan, I’ll do that.
“I’m getting closer to the light at the end of the tunnel but I’m not getting ahead of myself, I know that there’s a lot of work to be done and I’m ready for that work. Step by step, I’m getting there.”