JUST nine months after leaving Oxford United and six since winning a league title, Michael Collins’s mental strength is being sorely tested after circumstances conspired to make him one of football’s free agents.

The midfielder is only 30, but a spell abroad followed by a calamitously-timed injury has left the former Huddersfield Town apprentice training on his own.

“I’m in the gym and there are no guarantees of anything,” he said.

“I don’t have a contract and even though I’m telling myself ‘you’ve got to do this, I’m going to get back in and get my career going again’ it does become hard.

“It’s probably when you’ve got to be the most mentally strong as an athlete to keep yourself going.”

Collins was Michael Appleton’s first signing and became an important player in a testing campaign for the head coach.

Oxford Mail:

  • Michael Collins was a regular for Oxford United in Michael Appleton's first season at the club

Despite 43 appearances in 2014/15, Collins was informed he was not part of United’s plans for last season.

A mixed spell on loan at struggling York City followed, before agreeing to a settlement for the final six months of his U’s contract in January.

Collins’s next stop was more exotic than Bootham Crescent, joining Bengaluru FC for the short I-League season.

He said: “India was probably one of the best things I’ve done in my career from an experience point of view.

“I had always wanted to do something totally different and is something I certainly don’t regret.

“We won the league, but the one negative which I expected anyway was going over there took me off the radar totally in England.

“When I came back in the summer and was speaking to clubs they hadn’t seen or heard anything about you for six months.”

Collins was one of 844 professionals without a contract last summer but was quickly approached by Blackpool, only for his plans to hit a brick wall after picking up a foot injury.

“It got the point where I couldn’t run,” he said.

“I didn’t tell them I was injured because all I wanted was to earn myself a contract.

“It was naïve, but in the end I went to see (manager) Gary Bowyer.”

It has taken ten weeks to get back fit, probably twice as long as it would have taken for a contracted player with rapid access to medical care.

In the meantime the season has swung into action and Collins is left with a big decision – does he stay local with his young family in Yorkshire and limit his options, or spread the net wider and live on the road?

His tale is one of five free agents told in Out of Contract, a documentary to be screened on Sky Sports 1 on Sunday, October 16.

The whole process has been an eyeopener for Collins, who is studying to do his UEFA A Licence coaching qualification and harbours ambitions of going into management.

He said: “When you’re under contract – and I’ve been guilty of it myself – you take the game for granted as if it’s always going to be there.

“But before you know it, suddenly you’re on the outside looking in.

“Unfortunately it’s the nature of the job and the situation I’m in, so I’ve just got to get on with it.”