Dundee defender Josh Meekings has admitted he was forced to consider his future after suffering a serious knee injury last year.
The 25-year-old missed the second half of last season after sustaining the injury playing for Inverness against Ross County, and was out of contract in the summer.
But after undergoing lengthy rehabilitation, Meekings has returned to action at Dens Park after Neil McCann showed faith in his fitness and offered him a deal in August.
“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t go through my mind,” he said. “I was out of contract with Inverness and was sat there thinking ‘who is going to be interested?’
“People are going to have concerns about my knee so it was a frustrating period and quite difficult to deal with mentally, but other players spoke to me and said you have to keep working hard.
“Thankfully in the end it has worked out and hopefully I can get some more games out on the pitch.”
Meekings’ return has unfortunately coincided with a five-game losing streak for Dundee ahead of their clash with Kilmarnock this weekend.
And he has been frustrated that he has been unable to repay the faith shown in him by McCann with results on the pitch.
He said: “For me it’s been very frustrating to come back and not get the results we wanted.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity I’ve been given and I want to be able to give something back. It has been hard and it’s frustrating to not be able to do what we want to do and get three points every time.
“He’s shown great faith in me and I believe in what he’s trying to implement on the training ground.
“We’re working really hard every day as a defensive unit on trying to be more solid and aggressive.
“It’s frustrating when we’re conceding goals and he is trying to do something slightly different, but it’s up to us to do it on the pitch.”
