By Gareth James
Ebou Adams is ready to get into an arm-wrestle with anyone who tries to stop him becoming a success at Cardiff City.
It has been a long, painful road back but the midfielder is now fully fit and desperate to show his worth to Bluebirds fans.
Adams helped steer Forest Green Rovers to promotion two seasons and then got the chance to step up to the Championship with a summer transfer to the Bluebirds.
At that stage the London-born, Gambian international felt his football dreams were coming true, but then he got floored by a double injury blow.
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The first came after a freak incident as he ripped the pectoral muscle off the bone. Then he chipped his kneecap and had to undergo surgery. It meant he had to wait more than a year to make his debut/
“Being told I couldn’t play, and to then find my time out was extended and extended, made it a scary time,” said Adams.
“I’d had a good season for Forest Green, played the first pre-season game at Cardiff and hadn’t even touched the ball when I went up for a header and someone hit me from behind at the most vulnerable point.
“It managed to tear my pectoral muscle and the tendon came completely off the bone. Everyone thought it was a shoulder injury at first, it was weird.
“I asked how many injuries like this happen in football and they said ‘none’. I went and searched for who else had had an injury like it and found Triple H from WWE!
“That says a lot about the injury. I used to watch wrestling a lot when I was younger, when I used to jump off the bed.”
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You can hardly compare the mild-mannered Adams with the giant figure from the world of WWE wrestling – he is six inches shorter and about seven stone lighter – although the former part-time footballer who went from working at TGI Fridays to playing in the knock-out stages of the Africa Cup of Nations has always been a competitive and combative figure on the field.
He picked up 15 yellow cards and a red in Forest Green’s promotion season in 2021-22 and has had to display all his fighting qualities to get back into the thick of the action after a chipped kneecap added to his medical woes just as he was ready to return midway through last season.
“It was a tough year watching the boys play and seeing comments like, ‘Where is Ebou at?’ It made me think ‘Am I ever going to play again?’” admitted Adams.
“When I got called up to travel to Leeds for the opening game of the season, I remember thinking ‘What do I have to pack?!’ I’d completely forgot how to be a footballer!
“Going on at Leeds it felt like I was back at home. I was very nervous, but as soon as I crossed the line, I just felt like I was in my zone.”
Adams has featured in Cardiff’s two league games to date this season, coming on in the 2-2 draw at Leeds and starting in the 2-1 home defeat to QPR, and is hoping for another start at Leicester City today.
A first win for his new club is the dream – especially since he hasn’t tasted victory in an EFL game since 18 April 2022.
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