But he claims he would do it all again if it was for the good of the club and is planning to be back in the first team picture in under a month’s time.
The Belgian international has not played this season after hopes that a rest cure would end his injury woes came crashing to the floor just two days into pre-season.
Instead of leaping on a plane to South Africa with his teammates he went to hospital and climbed onto the operating table.
“It was quite disappointing for me the way it happened,” he recalled. “After all the pain and discomfort I had gone through last season we decided to let the toe rest for a month during the holiday period.
“I had really high hopes especially because during that time I worked really hard to get as fit as possible to be flying for the season because I knew how important it would be but after two training sessions I knew that it was not going to happen and it was a case of starting everything from scratch again.
I got an operation done and it has relieved me from a lot of pain. I am now looking forward to be able to play pain free which hasn’t happened for a while.
...Vincent Kompany...
Kompany is waiting for a broken bone in his toe to knit and heal properly and knows that it is not something that he can rush or there would be the possibility of the bone breaking again.
“I don’t know exactly what has been done in the foot because to me it felt like there were a lot of things wrong in there,” he explained looking back to the surgery.
“I kicked someone’s heel in a game in February and must have broken something and torn some ligaments and muscles within the toe and as a right footed player whatever you do be it turning, jumping, sprinting, or kicking your toe is very important.
“Because I prolonged playing, everything was damaged in the end. I don’t regret it but it was a bit disappointing that the time off didn’t cure it.
“Playing on perhaps wasn’t the cleverest thing to do but it is in my mentality that if I could be around and help the team in any way then I would. I didn’t think twice about it.”
Now, though, the midfielder, who is also at home in the centre of defence, is only looking forwards not backwards.
“The manager says he has got to hold me back and he is probably right. Initially when I had the operation done the specialist said I would be looking at three to four months which usually means four months,” he smiled.
“I have worked hard and apparently I am a good healer. I am two months into the rehab now and hopefully in two or three week’s time I might be back with the team training and adapting again.
I have no pre-season behind me but being back with the lads in two or three weeks would be amazing for me.
...Vincent Kompany
“I am outside doing individual work and I have been doing that for twelve days or so. The hardest part of the training is right now because I am going back to my full cardio vascular exercises and capacity but it is going well and every day I progress.
“I have been injured before in my career. I was out for almost two years with consecutive injuries. The problems I have had have made me realise how lucky I am to play this game professionally. It has also made me mentally stronger.
“I have always viewed injury layoffs as a chance to work on the things that I have needed to work on and I have always come back stronger. Hopefully the same will happen with this one.”
