Rotherham United defender Sean Morrison on moving on emotionally from Cardiff City, a new Championship fight with the Millers and the importance of his 'rock'

Yorkshire has still played its part in a long and eventful career which began in 2007, good and bad.

The Rotherham United defender is looking forward to his 17th year as a professional with the enthusiasm of a 'seven-year-old' as he puts it. With good reason given recent events.

This time last year, the centre-half - a club legend at previous team Cardiff City who he captained for six years - was out of contract and on the long road back to fitness after suffering a serious ACL injury at Barnsley in February 2022.

It was his last senior game for the Bluebirds.

He remained in the Welsh capital, a place he and his wife Stacey adored - on a return-to-play contract, which allowed him to undergo his rehabilitation with Cardiff due to his deal expiring while he was out injured.

After three comeback games with the under-21s, his departure was announced last December.

The 32-year-old, who scored a feted double for Cardiff at Hull in April 2018 in a season when they were promoted to the Premier League, signed a short-term deal with Rotherham in the new year and agreed a one-year contract last month.

One largely glorious chapter in his career may be over, but Morison is grateful for what he has got.

He told The Yorkshire Post: "This time last year, I would have probably been five or six weeks into my running with my ACL rehab.

"I was in a great place with my knee, but I was also six months away from playing first-team football. It was a very tough space to be in, mentally.

"With injuries, you have your 24 hours of sulking and feeling sorry for yourself, wondering 'why me - why did this happen.' You have got to dive into the rehab and I focused on day to day, week to week and how can I improve.

"That’s all I have done over the last 15 to 16 months.

"No-one is going to feel sorry for you and you just have got to keep going, keep trucking and working hard and use it as an opportunity to improve yourself and hopefully come back in a better position to maybe what you were before.

"It was also something I've relished and I learnt a lot about my body at that time, which has only put me in good stead going forward to the end of my career.

"This is the first proper pre-season I’ve had in a couple of years. The staff have been great and really looking after me - trying to stop me doing too much and pushing me when I need to be pushed."

Part of Morrison's fitness work during his comeback at Cardiff saw him organise boxing sessions with a private personal trainer.

He has practiced yoga for five years and his suppleness was evident in the recent friendly with Middlesbrough when he made a goal-line clearance he was not really entitled to make.

Healthy in body, the Devonian is also strong in mind. A lion-hearted leader in his time in the Principality, Morrison, at somewhere close to his best, has the potential to be a talismanic figure for the Millers and help to fill the void vacated by Richard Wood.

He has previously spoken, with a sense of pride, 'about going to war every Saturday' at Cardiff. Now he and his new team-mates must don the war paint again in 2023-24 as the Millers continue to try and punch above their weight at an unforgiving level. It's one Morrison knows better than most.

Morrison, who spent a loan spell at Huddersfield Town earlier in his career, continued: "It's a proper football club, I love it, honestly.

"Whenever I spoke to my mates about it in the summer and they asked me what I was going to do, I was beaming when I was talking about it.

"It's a real football club with real fans, real people and the people you speak to outside are fantastic.

"Nothing will come easy, especially in this league but the manager is a fighter and his staff are all fighters and he wants his team to fight."

An imposing presence on the pitch, Morrison is quick to pay tribute to his 'rock' off it - someone who has helped him through the tough times. He added: "To be fair, my wife was unbelievable and she is my rock. She is the one who takes me away from football, sometimes.

"She's realistic in goals and ambitions and keeps me grounded. I am very lucky to have her and my family.

"We had been so settled in Cardiff and as a pairing, we don't know anything different. (But) This year, living up here, we've got lots of friends, we are so lucky.

"A couple of our friends play for Sheffield Wednesday, Derby and Sheffield United. We have people in and around that make it easier for her to settle in.

"She also knows Pelt's missus (Lee Peltier) really well. And Dillon Phillips, we know his partner. When you have been in football this long, you know everyone..."