GOAL sat down with the Scottish star to talk about the honor of claiming an award that exactly zero players ever dream of winning
Lewis Morgan's darkest moments during his recovery didn't come in the operating room or at rehab. They didn't even come on the nights at home when his hip was in severe pain from an injury that even left doctors stunned.
They came at Red Bull Arena surrounded by people who were desperate to cheer him on. It was in those moments that Morgan felt most alone and the most out of place.
"Not being able to play, you always feel like a little bit of a fraud," Morgan says. "I felt like, when I would go to our home games and you're not playing and you're in amongst the fans or whatever, you just sort of feel like you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing."
Those moments are long gone. They feel so far away. Wednesday's Comeback Player of the Year announcement confirmed that, as if Morgan's play this season hadn't already. The New York Red Bulls winger was honored with the 2024 MLS Comeback Player award, effectively closing the book on that long road to recovery. It was one that saw him miss nearly an entire season due to various hip issues. It was a year, in some ways, wasted, but one that also strengthened Morgan in ways he now understands.
Back for 2024, Morgan was also back to his best. After 14 goals and four assists in 2022, Morgan's 2024 campaign produced 13 goals and seven assists. After so much time out, oddly, not much had changed.
Well, that's not entirely true. His play notwithstanding, Morgan's changed a great deal, and now he has an award to remind him of how far he's come. GOAL sat down with Morgan to discuss his comeback, what he discovered on the journey, and the Red Bulls' hopes going forward in the latest Wednesday Convo.
IMAGNON WINNING THE AWARD
GOAL: Winning Comeback Player of the Year is as much about recognizing a person as it is a player. It's not as much about on-field achievements as it is about off-field persistence. What does it mean to you?
MORGAN: It's not really an award that you have plans on ever winning. I think it's hard to kind of compare each player's journey, and I'm certainly not sitting here saying that I deserve it, or anything like that. I know loads of guys went through really tough times over the last year to get back and play. I'm just happy to see all those guys who went through similar situations get back out there playing.
I think it's just character building, you know? I think you take a lot of things for granted in football, and I certainly did. I hadn't really dealt with any injuries, and then to have one as big as the one that I had definitely tests your character. You find out a lot about yourself. Obviously, the main thing for me now is happy to be back playing and on the other side of it, and then anytime you get individual recognition, of course, it's nice, but you only do that with the help of the people around you.
AdvertisementIMAGNON THE RECOVERY PROCESS
GOAL: What's the recovery process like? That is all done in the dark away from the public eye. It's something people don't see or understand the difficulty of. How did you handle that?
MORGAN: You completely start to lose confidence more in your body than yourself. I never once felt that I was a different player, but I felt like my body couldn't keep up and do the things that I needed it to do, which is the worst thing. It's painful as well, the injuries I had were very painful, so there was that aspect as well.
Not being able to play, you always feel like a little bit of a fraud. I felt like, when I would go to our home games, and you're not playing and you're in amongst the fans or whatever, and you just sort of feel like you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. So definitely, like I said, it tests you in loads of ways, mentally and physically. And yeah, it's, it's the hardest thing about football, I think, like you say. Sometimes people just think always they have an opinion of you or of your injury without actually knowing how tough it is, and how bad it is. So, yeah, all that comes into it.
USA Today ImagesON GETTING BACK TO HIS BEST
GOAL: Obviously, no drop-off this season. You came right back and put up the kind of numbers you were putting up before the injury. When did you really feel like yourself again?
MORGAN: I would probably be lying if I said that [I felt like myself]. I'm definitely not 100 percent now even. I think they said from the surgery that it could take like 15 months before I feel 100 percent again, and I'm approaching 14 or so now. I think I've probably not felt 100 percent just because the season has been so long and I've played so many more games than I thought I was going to. My hip health in general and everything, you sort of lose muscle mass as the season goes on, so that area doesn't feel 100 percent.
I think it'll probably be next season where I feel 100 percent back to myself. This year was just about staying on the pitch and getting on the pitch, and I knew in all the games I was healthy, my hip was healthy, but I probably haven't been fully there. I think there's been loads of ups and downs, and I just need to manage my hip every single day now.
It's something that I've gotten used to, and this is, I guess, the new normal. I think in the off-season this year, I'll be able to finally give it some much-needed rest, strengthen up. But, yeah, I do feel great compared to where I was last year. I feel amazing.
Getty Images SportON PLAYING FOR SCOTLAND IN THE EUROS
GOAL: This award isn't the only big moment of recognition this season for you. You also were called back into the Scotland team to play in the Euros this past summer after a few years away. What was that moment like, particularly given what you had to deal with leading up to it?
MORGAN: It was amazing. I think it was exactly a year to the day, I'd need to go back and check, but I think it was either a year to the day or a year and one day beforehand when I had the major injury against Orlando. It was a Grade Three tear, which was unheard of. Loads of specialists, doctors, physios – I've actually had a 3c tear, which is very substantial, and it was a year or a year in one day to the day of my call up to the Euros.
It's stuff like that that you don't really remember at the time. When I got injured, I'm never thinking, "In a year's time, I'm going to be going to the Euros." It's not something in your mind. All of that culminating in the call to the national team, which I hadn't been a part of for five years or so, it was just amazing to be back involved in that setup as well.
All of this comes from the hard work that I put in, and, even more I always say, the hard work that the physio department put in at Red Bulls and the specialists and my surgeon and everyone. There are too many people to thank.
