Walker eager to make up for lost time after Bradford City return

The Scot is buzzing to be back after missing nearly four months following a knee injury.

Walker made his first appearance for 115 days when he came off the bench at Salford last week.

And while he admits it was a rusty return, the attacker is determined to get back up to speed as City head towards Saturday’s mouth-watering clash at League Two leaders Leyton Orient.

Walker said: “It probably wasn’t the normal Jamie Walker that the fans got used to when I came, pressing and running in behind and putting pressure on people.

“I didn’t feel bad fitness-wise, it’s just that match sharpness, trying to run through, going to press, people running off you.

“But I’m delighted to be back on the pitch and maybe having no game at the weekend can help me. I can get another full week’s training under my belt and look forward to Leyton Orient.

“It was tough being out but now that I’m back hopefully I can help the team going forward in the second half of this year.”

Walker was the first signing of the Mark Hughes summer overhaul when his permanent capture was announced at the player of the year awards the day after the final game of last season.

Jamie Walker fires home against Carlisle last season (Image: Thomas Gadd)

He had scored against Carlisle to make it a run of three consecutive goals at Valley Parade and the news was greeted with excitement by supporters.

But having started the curtain-raiser against Doncaster, Walker’s progress was brought to a shuddering halt by an injury in training.

“We were doing a wee bit of possession work, I went to turn and my knee just caught,” he added.

“It felt a bit sore at the time but I just carried on training. We were off on the Wednesday and then Thursday, I couldn’t keep going.

“The medical staff, to be fair, got to the bottom of the problem quickly.

“I got it scanned but the biggest problem didn’t show up. The bigger tear was on the outside of the knee and the scan didn’t pick that up.

“I got the inside trimmed but then the outside was still sore, that’s why it was a bit longer than expected.

“I woke up from the operation and that was a tough one to take. But football throws things like that at you and I’m just glad I’m back now.”

Walker’s knee operation took place at the Yorkshire Clinic in Bingley - ironically where he had been sent for similar surgery in January 2019.

“I live two minutes from there now so it’s weird how things work.

“But I’m happy that things went well with the rehab and I never really had any setbacks when I got back on the grass.

“Now it’s about building my fitness and match sharpness and hopefully I can get back to the form that I had at the end of last season.

“The family have moved down and I had big ambitions going into this one. To get injured after the first game like that wasn’t what I’d planned.

“It’s been mentally tough but the medical staff picked me up and helped me along the way. They’ve been fantastic with all my rehab.”

Hughes has described Walker as a “new signing” and the 29-year-old knows the fans have high hopes for him.

“I’m not really on Twitter but I’ve said to my partner a few times that there’s always stuff on there with big expectation for me coming back.

“I need to embrace that, take it on my shoulders and help the team going forward.

“Hopefully I can come back and add something different to the team and we can push on how we want to finish the season.”