"I probably feel even stronger" - Town defender Cummings on injury, recovery and the season ahead

After scoring on his debut at Solihull in August last year, Cummings helped Halifax to four clean sheets in his eight appearances, including against Dagenham and Redbridge at The Shay a month later.

"It was a bit of a weird one," recalled Cummings, who suffered a lateral collateral ligament injury in the game.

"Usually when you do a knee injury, you're twisting and turning but I did mine mid-air.

"I jumped and someone crashed into the bottom-half of my leg and it just popped out a bit.

"At the time I just thought it was a clash of knees and I carried on playing, but when the adrenaline settled down, that's when it settled in that it might be something serious.

"It's a rare one, but it helps you keep the majority of your balance in your knee."

Cummings says it was the first serious long-term injury he had sustained in his career.

"I dealt with it OK, obviously there's ups and downs," he said.

"At the start, I thought it was only going to be three months, and then the operation set me back a bit longer, that was the hardest bit.

"The first two months was fine.

"The lads got round me to be fair, they're a good set of lads.

"They were always checking on me, and so were the gaffer and the staff, so I never felt like I was away, they kept me involved, which was good.

"My family helped keep me sane too when I was glued to the sofa just watching TV, watching the games on the live stream, screaming at my TV!"

It was around five months after the injury that Cummings was able to resume any kind of training.

"It took a while," he said. "At the start it was really slow, I couldn't bend my leg for six weeks.

"Usually it's, what, six weeks until you're back out there.

"I had to do a lot of turning, change of direction work and getting confidence back within yourself.

"At the start, I struggled, I didn't really believe my knee was fine.

"Az (Aaron Scholes, physio) was saying 'your knee's fine, trust me'.

"But just a bit of encouragement from people who know what they're doing, it boosts you up and eventually, we got there.

"Probably years ago, I'd have felt it was time wasted but I've got a different mindset now.

"I've just got to see the postives. There's nothing I can do now.

"I just live in the moment, I'm back fit.

"At one point, I didn't know if I was going to be back playing for this club again."

Cummings is confident he is back to the player he was before the injury.

"100 per cent, I probably feel even stronger really," he said.

"Before the injury, I wasn't really massive on the gym and things like that, but now I'm hammering the gym constantly and I can feel the effects, it's benefiting me a lot.

"I've got my personal goals that I want to do, bit by bit, but I just want to prove to myself firstly, then it'll show to everyone else, that I'm here.

"There's a shirt there to go for and to keep, but that's only through hard work and doing stuff right on and off the pitch.

"I've got to believe in my own abilities, that I can do well, at this club and at this level."

And Cummings feels he will part of a Town squad that can at least match last year's top seven finish.

"A few lads have left, obviously, but I feel like we've still got a good core in the group, who we had last year," he said.

"And there's some guys who didn't play as much last year but will feel they're ready to do well.

"So I don't see why we can't do well.

"Last year, a few teams wrote us off early doors but we ended up finishing seventh.

"If we'd had the games on when they were supposed to be, obviously that's football, but if we'd have been fresher going into Solihull, it would have been a different game.

"But I don't see why we can't do the same again or even better."

At 25, Cummings is one of the oldest players in the group, and one of the most vocal.

"It is quite a young group but there's lads here who've got experience from last year, so I don't really think it'll be an issue," he said.

"I can't shut up anyway, good or not, I can't keep my mouth shut.

"If there's one thing about our group, no-one feels like they're better than anyone, everyone's on the same wavelength.

"Everyone wants to do well, so if everyone's on the same path, age doesn't really matter.

"We've got a good group with characters. Some of them aren't really talkers but they show it on the pitch, so there's different ways of showing maturity and experience."