Bradley thought his season was over for Luton after horrific knee injury against Royals

​Town skipper Sonny Bradley was elated to take to the field at Rotherham United on Saturday after admitting he didn’t think he would feature again for the Hatters this term.

Back on November 1, the centre half went up for an aerial challenge against Reading at Kenilworth Road and after landing awkwardly was eventually stretchered off.

Images of the incident afterwards showed just what a horrific incident it was for Bradley, whose knee hyper-extended, leaving the defender with what initially looked like a season-ending injury, although fortunately diagnosed as a fracture to the knee.

He was back in the Luton squad when named as a substitute for the 1-0 win over Swansea on March 4 and after two cameo outings from the bench since, was finally called on from the start for the 2-0 win at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.

Discussing just how hard it has been to come back from the injury, Bradley said: “Mentally it was difficult, as when I did it initially, there was no way I thought I’d be back this season.

"I went for a scan the next day and found out it was good news.

"Three, four months turned out to be good news for me because it could have easily been an ACL or even worse, I could have broken my leg.

"So I feel fortunate not to do that and I’ve been in good company with the physio department.

"The boys speak about them quite a lot, but they are first class and they’ve got me in a position now where there are potentially seven games to go and I feel fully fit.

"I am in a great place, it's been hard work coming back because it takes you maybe six to eight weeks to get fully fit but you can lose it in a couple of weeks.

"You lose a lot of muscle mass and physically it’s hard work, but I’ve done it right.

"I’ve put the work in and put myself in a position now where if the manager wants to select me I am available.”

Bradley has been through the wringer when it comes to injuries over the last few years, suffering two bouts of Covid along the way as well, but he finally feels in a good place once more.

He continued: “I don’t want to speak about it too much as we all know in football it can change pretty quickly, but it’s nice to be fit and healthy and ready to go.

"So a difficult few months, but everybody at the club has supported me.

"Physically now I feel like I’m in a great position, it’s about helping the boys get over the line."

After starting his first game in over five months at the weekend, Bradley is now keen to keep his place in the Town back-line when the Hatters head to Reading this evening.

He added: “I’m stood here now and my back’s a little bit stiff, but it’s been over five months since I played.

"We've got a first class team when it comes to sports science and our physio department are first class, so we’ll get our recovery in now and we go away to Reading, which will be a difficult game.

“They’ve had a good result (against Burnley) which I can see and it was the Reading game at the start of November that I got injured.

"So it will be nice for me to go back there with the boys and try and get a good result.”