Ryan Longman opens up on Hull City injury nightmare and his Tigers future

Ryan Longman has opened up for the first time on the shoulder surgery, which saw him miss the first three months of the Championship campaign.

Longman spent last season on loan at Millwall after former boss Liam Rosenior sanctioned his departure in August 2023. But after returning to City for pre-season, he proved to be a key part of Tim Walter's summer plans until he suffered a dislocated shoulder just before half-time in the final friendly before the Championship campaign started at Reading, which left the head coach seething.

The injury came as a hammer blow to the 24-year-old winger who was keen to make his mark at the club he joined permanently in January 2022 after spending the season away at The Den, and to Walter, who, at that point, had a threadbare squad in attacking areas, prior to the arrival of Liam Millar, Mohamed Belloumi and Abu Kamara.

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Longman, though, is pleased the period is behind him and can now focuse on the future after making his first appearance of the season in the second half of Sunday's 2-1 home defeat to West Brom.

"It's been frustrating being on the sidelines for three months. I didn't think when I initially did it that it was going to be as long as three months," Longman told Hull Live. "When I went and spoke to the surgeon, it was pretty clear that I needed to get it done (operated on) to get my shoulder repaired. I'm glad it's all over now.

"To be fair to the physios, they've been in tops with me. They have looked after me and obviously got me back in decent shape as well. It was a posterior dislocation of the shoulder, so it popped out backwards, which is quite rare. In normal day-to-day life, that's quite a rare injury to have because normally, it pops out forward instead of backwards.

"When I spoke to the surgeon, he just said, 'You need to get (it operated on) otherwise, it's just going to keep popping in and out, so it was one of them where it was like, let's just get it done then, and hopefully three months down the line, I can get back to full fitness.

"I think it was more of a shock of how long it was going to take to recover. It's been quite painful, like the recovery and stuff, because it's your shoulder it feels like you can play, but you know you can't, there's no contact within that three months. You're just not allowed to do any contact on it, so that was the more frustrating part. I was running on my own, most of it."

Longman could now be a key figure for City given the serious knee injuries picked up by Millar and Belloumi which will keep them sidelined for the rest of the season. As for Kamara, he has been nursing an issue which has seen him miss the last two games, though it's hoped he'll be fit for the trip to Luton Town after the international break.

It could have all been very different, however, had City accepted Millwall's overtures during the summer to make his loan move permanent. Lions boss Neil Harris was very vocal in his desire to keep Longman in South London, but happy to be back at City for now, the ex-Brighton and Hove Albion academy graduate admits you can never predict what may happen in the future given the unpredictably of football, and the transfer market.

"I think it's football. I think different managers, different styles, different opportunities arose," he explained. "I had a really good spell at Millwall and really enjoyed it. Liam (Rosenior) then gets sacked, a new gaffer comes in, he likes the look of me, and that's just how football goes.

"There's obviously a lot of distractions outside of football, but at the end of the day, whatever shirt I'm wearing, I'm just going to try and do my best."

When asked if he saw his future with the Tigers, he replied: "Yes (this is where I want to be). I've got I got my whole life up here. I've got a house up here, my missus loves it, we've just got another dog.

"It's part of football, isn't it? You don't know where you're going to be in the next six months, you just have to see how everything goes, take it game by game and take it day by day."