Devlin hopes to get off to a flyer this time
He spent his whole summer on the training ground.
Now Mikey Devlin hopes to spend a full season on the pitch.
After missing the whole of the 2017/18 campaign through injury, Aberdeen star Devlin spent time on the treatment table again last season.
After regaining fitness, the driven defender was never quite satisfied with his performance levels.
But after capping his debut Dons season with a surprise Scotland call-up – and knocking back an offer from Derek Mcinnes of extra time off before reporting for pre-season – Devlin is raring to show the Red Army what he’s all about.
“Towards the end of last season, I was fully fit, albeit not playing week-in, week-out,” he said.
“At that point, you don’t really want the season to come to an end if you are 100% – and having missed a lot of football through injury.
“Rather than take extra time the manager might have given me if I felt I needed it, I just wanted to come back and hit the ground running and really go and fight for my place.
“I wanted to make sure I’d done everything I possibly could to show I was ready to play in the first competitive games.”
Joining up with Scotland for the European Championship qualifiers against Cyprus and Belgium gave Devlin the platform to put in some close-season work.
But it also gave him a massive lift after a run of dissatisfying performances for the Dons.
“I felt it was a big thing to be part of Steve Clarke’s first squad,” he said.
“Although towards the end of last season things weren’t how I would’ve liked them to be, I know deep down why that was and where I need to get to in order to get that back.
“I’ve tried to do that over the summer, so that I’m ready to go.
“But certainly, it was brilliant to be part of the Scotland squad and it showed that the manager has watched me and liked what he saw.
“I got the news on the day of my brother’s wedding and it was one of the best days I’ve had.
“I’d kept myself ticking over on the off chance I might be in it, so to get that news was amazing.”
The Dons kick off their Europa League campaign on Thursday against Finnish outfit ROPS Rovaniemi.
It is unlikely to be as testing an experience as last year’s Burnley tie.
But Devlin insists Aberdeen will be just as professional in their approach.
“What an experience it was,” he said. “We were ever so close to pulling off a shock result.
“Last year the magnitude of the game was fantastic, certainly for someone like myself who’d never played in Europe before.
“This year, there has to be an element that we can go and progress, without being disrespectful or underplaying the opposition.”