Ryan Luty was at rock bottom.
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It was meant to be the most exciting year of his soccer career, but his dream proved to be quite the nightmare.
The St Pats and Albury United product left for Canberra as one of AWFA's most talented young prospects and returned to the region eight years later hoping to make an impact with Murray United at NPL 2 level.
But the 28-year-old suffered setback after setback with a mystery hip injury.
Every time Luty tried to train, he would break down and be out for weeks.
He sought several opinions from doctors and the news was different with every one.
Before he knew it, the season had come and gone and he hadn't managed a minute in the senior line-up.
He was destined for some last chance surgery, with an early retirement looking imminent, before a breakthrough was discovered.
"I waited around to get on the list for surgery and when I saw the orthopaedic surgeon, he wanted to give me an injection just to see whether it was in that area," Luty said.
"The injection cleared a lot of the pain up and I haven't had any issues since.
"If we would have done that at the start of last year it would have been nice.
"I'm still carrying it a little bit, but it's nowhere near what it was before.
"They said for a while it was a hip impingement and now they reckon its muscular around the hip.
"To be honest, everyone I go to see gives me a different diagnosis - I still don't have any information on what it is."
Luty was constantly told rest was the only solution, but as soon he felt fit enough to train it was one step forward, two steps back.
"It was really frustrating, because with most other injuries you get a diagnosis and you can at least get the treatment into it and it's fine, but this was a bit of a mystery," he said.
"I nearly stopped turning up last year because it's hard to watch from the sidelines when you're not playing.
"I obviously want to be there to support the boys, but there was a point where I was thinking 'am I ever going to get back out there?'.
"It's sort of the reason I started coaching this year as well, just to stay around and help out."
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Testament to his character, Luty continued to do everything possible to get himself right.
The injection in his hip on December 14 was the first glimmer of hope for the entire year.
"I was still going to doctors appointments trying to figure it all out, and, as far as I knew, we were heading towards surgery early in the season, probably about this time," Luty said.
"Things have progressed nicely and it has come through well.
"I'm still not 100 per cent fit and I started pre-season quite late because I just came down to run around to make sure it was my hip that was injured.
"It's almost been three months now (since the injection) and I'm not really having any issues.
"I've played 70-80 minutes in all the games so far."
Luty's so-called plan B to take on Murray's under-18s coaching role in case he wasn't fit to play has also been a blessing in disguise.
"Things around the club are really good, it feels really good and the culture around the club is really strong," he admitted.
"I don't know whether it feels different to last year, because I was on the sidelines and wasn't a part of it.
"There's a lot more integration with the young guys coming through, so it really brings a lot of life into the squad.
"I'm coaching the under-18s side and we're currently undefeated.
"There's a lot of raw talent that hasn't been coached yet, but they're showing a lot of potential.
"We've had a draw and a win so far, so it already shows the sky is the limit for those boys.
"There was a bit of a disconnect between the seniors and juniors, but it's starting to be repaired and the club can only benefit."
Murray will look to bounce back from last weekend's heartbreaking draw with Langwarrin when it hits the road to face Northcote City on Sunday - a side they beat 2-1 in pre-season.
Former Socceroo Archie Thompson returns for his first game of the year.
Kick-off is at 3pm.
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