Bafana Bafana international Daylon Claasen admitted that at one stage he wondered if he would everfully recover from the knee injury that kept him sidelined for six months.
Claasen is likely to feature in Gordon Igesund's squads after his injury kept him out of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
He has played three matches so far this year for his Belgian side Lierse and has felt no ill effects - good news for both his struggling club and his country. But he admitted it has been one of the hardest times in his career.
"I mainly struggled mentally. Usually when you have an operation you know more or less when you're ready to play again.
"But, with this strange knee injury, I sometimes saw no light at the end of the tunnel.
"I worked hard at my rehabilitation and saw no progression. I really wanted to play and could not. But during a few weeks in South Africa at the end of last year, I could free up my head and now I'm glad to be back playing."
Claasen injured the knee while on national team duty with Bafana against Zimbabwe in Harare in November 2011, but played through the pain to complete the season with Lierse.
"The artificial turf there [Harare] undoubtedly had something to do with it. Despite the pain in the knee, I kept playing. That was until the pain at the end of the season became unbearable.
"Tests showed that a lack of balance in my body was the cause.
"I was putting more pressure on my left than on my right.
"With orthotics and stability exercises the problem has been solved, hopefully for good."
English Premiership club Queens Park Rangers were keen to sign Claasen in January last year but work permit issues scuppered the move - and the injury at the end of the season meant he remained at Lierse. There are likely to be plenty of takers for him in July though if he can prove his fitness between now and then.
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