The final months of Joe Gomez's return path to full training were tracked across a calendar pinned on the Liverpool defender's wardrobe.

After more than a year of rehabilitation from the anterior cruciate ligament injury he sustained in October 2015 and a subsequent Achilles issue, the 19-year-old had moved into touching distance of being back among the squad at Melwood.

Slowly, the prospect of re-joining his flourishing teammates seemed real.

And in the last stretch, weekly distance targets proved timely motivational tools for the determined Gomez, who gladly crossed off each achieved objective during a key stage in his recovery.

“Towards the end, the final two months, I bought a calendar and put it on my wardrobe and I wrote out every day and ticked off every box,” he told Liverpoolfc.com.

“With the nature of my Achilles injury, I could write out my distances and I was checking off each week – ‘This week I finished 5k, this week I finished 8k.’

“That was massive for me because I was counting down and looking at the week itself, instead of focusing on a long-term goal. That helped me massively.”

Since returning to training in mid-October, Gomez has been clocking up important minutes with Liverpool’s U23 side, most recently in their 2-1 victory over Chester FC on Tuesday afternoon.

The No.12 also travelled with the first-team squad to the Premier League clash with Middlesbrough earlier this month – an experience that meant so much after so long out.

At the moment, these ‘little things’ are of huge importance to a player who made the step up to top-flight football with apparent ease upon joining the Reds from Charlton Athletic last summer.

Understandably, too, given how far he has come since the difficult days immediately after he suffered the ACL injury on England U21 duty 14 months ago.

“You don’t want to exaggerate, but it’s like everything has come to an end,” Gomez reflected.

“When you’re young and you’ve never experienced something like that… it’s not even the rest of the day, for the next couple of weeks you are in limbo, all over the place mentally and overthinking constantly.

“That’s where you’ve got your family and your friends around you, and your teammates, who keep you going. And then once you get over that rough patch, it’s about pushing on and being positive and getting started.

“Obviously it was tough at first and for a few weeks you’re struggling. With this injury, the surgery was a week after so there’s no time to settle, you’re straight into it and there’s the trauma of the surgery.

“It’s not easy but it only makes you stronger coming through the other side.

“I made sure I did everything I could and I had to have faith in the physios that it would all straighten itself out – and it did. I’ve got to be thankful for that.”

Gomez can now carry that positivity into 2017.

Still a teenager – “but I don’t feel like I am mentally” – he will also enter the New Year a much-changed character with a refreshed outlook to complement his obvious talent.

He added: “I’m a different person than I was before the injury, because of the nature of it. That’s bound to happen.

“I’m a believer that everything happens for a reason. It was a humbling experience – to be thankful for everything that you have. We’re all grateful to be in this position.

“Now I think I’m stronger for it and everything that happened has taught me many lessons off the pitch about life and mental strength.

“Touch wood, that’s the last big one that I have. I pray that I don’t have to experience anything like that again, because it is tough and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

“But it did make me a stronger person, mentally and physically. You can take positives from every situation.”