Danny Mills reveals how a groundbreaking, non-invasive treatment has given him new lease of life | OneFootball

Former Manchester City and Leeds United right-back Danny Mills has spoken of how a non-invasive knee treatment instead of surgery has allowed him to get back to sports and living a normal life.

As a player with 375 professional appearances on his CV, Mills knows all too well the effect football can have on the body and for the full back, it was his knees that caused the most issues.

“I had an issue with my left knee at about 27,” he told Planet Football. “It was when we used to do drills in pre-season where they wanted me to jump over hurdles and I said no.

“The fitness coaches would take exception to that, and I would just say ‘Look, run me. Give me any running session, and I will win every single one, no matter what. You put as many fitness sessions on as you like, and I’ll win them all but do not make me jump over hurdles, because it’s not going to work particularly well.’

“And that’s my left knee, and that was just wear and tear, because obviously, being right-footed, everything goes through your left knee. You plant and you twist, and it takes an awful lot of stress.

“But it was manageable, and I got through it, and at 30 I did my right knee that cost me my career.”

But giving up football is not giving up life and although he was no longer putting his body through such tests, knee pain did not leave him.

“I had operations on that, including microfracture early on, and then obviously retired, and then struggled for the first sort of two years in terms of getting back to running, couldn’t really do it.

“Finally, after lots and lots and lots of rehab, I started jogging again. But then, clearly the knees weren’t right, there were problems and then over the course of time, I worked, I managed it, and that’s what I did.

“I knew what I could and couldn’t do, and I didn’t do what I couldn’t do. I didn’t do what hurt. And then I did some more silly things – Iron Man, running marathons and all sorts, because someone said I couldn’t do it and being a bit thick-headed and stubborn, I said I could.

“And then I guess, you start to get a little bit older, and your rehab is not quite as good. Your body’s not quite as good as it once was. And then I did the London Marathon last year, and my knee blew up completely. And I thought ‘right, okay, this is the body saying now that you need to stop being stupid and running marathons, it’s not good for your body.’

“I would wake up in the mornings and you knew the knee was stiff. Getting out of bed, it was stiff. It was sore, trying to put socks on, having to roll backwards onto the bed to try and bend your knee to put your socks on. Coming down the stairs sideways all the time. For me, walking around and suddenly catching the knee and accidentally hitting the funny bone. It hits a nerve and the knee just gives away, and you fall over, quite funny, but not particularly fun.

“Funny for other people watching, but not always fun for me. So it was always just they were stiff, they were sore, they were grumbly. And you manage it, and you get through it, and you learn to live with pain.”

But while Mills’ marathon running stopped, his sport did not and a chance encounter on the golf course led to an impactful change.

“My knee was sore for three, four months after London, and then, just by chance, I was playing golf, and I spoke to Richard Bevan, who was at the LMA (League Managers Association), and he’d had osteoarthritis and I was talking about maybe having another operation to clean out the knees and see if anything can be done, like potential partial knee replacement.

“And he said ‘Look go and speak to these guys. Have a look into this.’ So I spoke to Mark Gillett, Chief Medical Officer of the Premier League.

“And he said there’s this new injection, Arthrosamid. It’s a gel, more than anything, the best way he described it is it’s a gel that sort of sticks to everything inside your joint, rather than just a liquid that works for a couple of weeks.

“He said ‘Look, so far, the trials that we’ve had, this can last anything for sort of like three to five years plus. And of course, that then gets you to another stage of life.

“By then you can probably have another set of injections or technology’s possibly moved on. And who knows what’s around the corner? So it’s really just delaying another serious operation, which I was all for, because the less invasive surgery you have the better, right?”

The injections have given Mills a pain-free existence once again.

“You have injections, and you go, actually, that’s gone. That pain has disappeared. Those issues are much, much better than they were before.

“It’s great, because taking the dog for a walk, even on cold days, is not a problem. Now, coming down the stairs is fine. I can still run. I run pretty much most days, not far but I can do that, and life is a lot better. There’s not as much pain anymore.

“I’m not young, I’m not old, either. I’m 49, I’ve got plenty of life left in me.”