‘Something has to change’ – Millwall POTY Ryan Leonard on bouncing back from injury woes

Ryan Leonard can look back at his 2023-24 Championship season with pride. But he knows that the challenge of earning a Millwall contract extension will start all over again when Neil Harris’ squad report back for training at the end of this month.

The versatile 32-year-old played 37 matches in all competitions for the Lions and his 2,712 minutes in the league are his most since the 2018-19 campaign (3,297).

Leonard impressively snuffed out a succession of wingers as he nailed down the right-back spot after Neil Harris’ return as head coach in February.

Prior to that the former Sheffield United, Southampton and Plymouth player had largely been used on the right of a back three.

While the position changed, his dependability did not.

It’s time for a moment of truth. When Millwall announced they had re-signed Leonard last summer, the reaction was mixed from some of the club’s supporters – some of whom felt his injury record in the previous two seasons meant he should have not been retained.

“I wasn’t aware of it,” said Leonard, when asked by the South London Press if he knew how fans felt back then.

“But I’m kind of aware of it in myself. I’ve been around the game enough and I’m not stupid. I understand the fact I did have injury problems for two or three years.

“It was something, in the summer, that I sat down with the football club, my wife and my kids and I said: ‘Something has to change. I need to do something different here’.

“Whatever it was about my routine, training and preparing for games, it wasn’t working. So I sat down and thought what I needed to do differently.

“I tried to change my routine and habits a little bit over the summer, work in a different way this season. Thankfully it has worked for me, performance-wise and fitness-wise. I’ve had a couple of little niggles this year but it’s been nothing compared to what I’ve had the previous couple of years.

“I’ve tried to do different things away from football. A lot is the mental side of it. I’ve tried not to overthink too much, focus my energy in different ways.

“I’ve taken up yoga. I’ve worked a lot harder with the physios and had a lot more treatment even when I am fit – to keep on top of things, instead of being reactive.

“A lot of it is confidence as well. Having confidence in your own body as well as your own ability.

“I’ve learned that and taken a step back when I am coming away from training and games – I try to enjoy being the other side of it and away from football.

“Those aspects have really helped me. It’s managed to keep me fit.”

Leonard, like George Saville, had appearance-based clauses in their Den deals that triggered an additional 12 months.

Both were mainstays under Harris, who had worked with the pair in his first spell as Lions boss.

It made it a formality, barring injury, that the pair would hit the numbers they needed to stay with the South Londoners.

“Everyone thinks you get to thirty and start going downhill,” said Leonard, when asked about older players no longer commanding long-term contracts. “I don’t feel like that.

“This is the best I’ve felt in years and I’m 32 now. I don’t see what the big deal is about. I feel better and fresher than I have in six or seven years.

“You’re not going to suddenly get a five-year deal at my age. It is just the game – the latter stages of your career you probably have to earn your contracts more. You have to show your value or fitness – whatever it takes – but you can also create good experiences from being one of the older players.

“We’ve got a group of senior ones who are trying to drive the football club, on and off the pitch, in terms of standards.”

Leonard is a player who certainly leads by example on the pitch. Strong and quick, even his move to right-back means he is no slouch in a footrace.

He completely nullified Leicester’s Stephy Mavididi in Millwall’s 1-0 win over the eventual Championship title-winners – a result which was a huge shot in the arm to their survival prospects.

“We have this running joke between the lads that one of the wingers is always that side’s best player going into every game,” said Leonard, when asked about his toughest opponent.

“Crysencio Summerville was very good at The Den and also very good away. Jack Clarke, at Sunderland, I’ve had a tough game against him each time.

“It is a year in the Championship where every team is so strong. Every team seems to have direct, quick and tricky wingers running at you one-v-one. It tests you out. To be fair, it is something I enjoy. I’m probably weird for thinking like that.

“The Leicester game sticks out, at home. Mavididi did really well this year. They kept slinging it out to him every two minutes in the second half. I think I had something like 14 one-on-ones in the second half.

“I’ve played full-back a lot of the time and you get those duels.”

So are the first couple key, in terms of setting the tone?

“They can be,” said Leonard. “Whether you are playing centre-mid, centre-half or striker, you always want to start the game well and put your mark. It can be important not to build other players’ confidence.

“We do a lot of hard work before the game. I try to look up the player I’m playing against and work out what they are good at. Then you work it from there.

“You don’t want to get skinned on the first couple. If you have a good start it always helps.”

Millwall’s season was far more erratic than Leonard’s displays.

The Lions had three different bosses. Gary Rowett opted to step down in October and successor Joe Edwards enjoyed a dream start – winning 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday – but then an alarming slump in form saw the club’s hierarchy remove him after a run of seven defeats in eight matches.

Millwall were one point above the relegation zone.

Harris’ impact was instant. A coupon-busting 2-1 victory at Southampton was a perfect return to the Lions’ managerial dugout.

Millwall won their final five matches to finish 13th, with safety mathematically confirmed after a 1-0 win at Sunderland in their 44th fixture of the campaign.

“It has been a year of ups and downs,” said Leonard. “As a team we have probably not achieved what we wanted to at the start of the season but the last 12 games we have achieved a hell of a lot.

“If you look at the points total since the manager came in, it has been amazing. We have to focus on that going into the start of next season.

“I don’t think the last 10-11 games go unnoticed, in terms of what the lads have done.

“He (Harris) is a man that has come in and I read somewhere that he had ‘galvanised’ the football club. That is a huge word to use – but he has made the football club perform the way it has.

“The points he has picked up, you look at his first game and we win at Southampton. That is one of the highlights of the season.

“His personality, the way he manages the team and each individual player – it’s a huge credit to him.

“We are the lads on the pitch doing it but it comes from the man in charge. He’s done an amazing job.

“The fact we guaranteed our safety with two games to go is a big achievement (considering the position Millwall were in).

“We have got young players in the club and you look at what the U18s have done this year and what the U23s have done in the last two or three years.

“You have got these youngsters and then experienced pros who can hopefully guide them through.

“If the manager can push on with what he did before then it can only be a positive summer and a positive season next year.”