Joe Morrill: The slow, painful death of a playing career after the highs of the World Cup

Instead, Morrell went through nearly two years of what he called “snakes and ladders” trying to get back on the field, trying not to tolerate setbacks to protect his family from frustration and nagging doubts about his future that increasingly crept in.

It’s enough to take a toll on most people – especially for someone who has flopped for so long in their career, surprising people along the way.

There was a point as a teenage midfielder who was staring at release from Bristol City and not even Margate at the bottom of the National League South were interested.

Promotions and 170 league appearances and 37 international appearances – including five appearances at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup – are testament to his determination.

But acceptance came when he realized, after three experiences at top-flight clubs with failed medical examinations at all three clubs, that he could not continue to put himself and his loved ones in danger.

“I can remember getting the test results back,” Morrell says as the wheels of his retirement begin to set in motion.

He recalls feeling a “strange” tap in his knee during Portsmouth’s match against Oxford in January 2024, less than two months before Wales was set to be a big part of the Euro 2024 play-offs.

“As an athlete, you’re almost conditioned that an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury is the worst of all, and [there was] Feeling relieved when that wasn’t the case. Looking back, I would have cut your hand off.”

The injury was actually a spinal defect, a cartilage injury in the knee, which required surgery and about five months.

But then he slipped out of the plyometrics box while entering the final stages of rehabilitation, causing screws to come out of the procedure and get stuck behind the knee. Excruciating pain and four more months.

“It was still very calm, and you trusted people to do their jobs, but there was one complication after another,” he says of the lead-up to the call that finally seemed so straightforward.

“Actually, I haven’t felt like a footballer for a long time.”