He told the Club magazine: “I was playing with pain for some time and not able to put in a full week’s training, it was a strange injury.
“It was something that was easy to aggravate and slowly got worse to the point where I couldn’t play on with.”
In fact Johnson had played through until early November before taking a month out – he then came back for three painful appearances in December before getting to the bottom of the problem.
The 20-year-old midfielder revealed: “It showed all the symptoms of a hernia and I had a double hernia operation, but it turned out there was another problem in the area of the pubic bone and though I played three matches, the pain from that grew too much.
“That injury kept me out for 10 or 11 games and was my first major injury set back. It taught me patience. The days are long when you are in the gym building up strength and muscle again just waiting to kick a ball.
“Sometimes I would be taking what I would think were two big steps forward in rehab and then I would go out running and be in pain again and feel as though I had taken three steps backwards. Then it just clicked into place and I was literally off and running.”
The England Under 21 international has since come back into the side and now aims to put in some match winning performances to mirror his first part of the season.
He said: “The great thing for me now is that I have had no problems since I came back and, hopefully, I will be able to finish the season as strongly as I started it.”
The full interview with Michael can be seen in April’s edition of the City Magazine, available in all good newsagents now, priced at just £2.50.
