“Is that OK? I’ll be straight back afterwards.” Sam Hutchinson breaks off halfway through the interview to officiate a wrestling match between the Sheffield Wednesday masseur and physio, the rest of the squad gathered round a makeshift ring to watch. It is a duel he arranged and one the physio comprehensively wins with a perfectly executed judo throw. With that, Hutchinson sits back down. His apologies for briefly departing are unnecessary: it would be churlish to object to Hutchinson, a man whose career so nearly ended before it started, enjoying small moments with his team-mates like that.

A product of Chelsea’s youth system, Hutchinson was a promising right-back before a chondral defect (basically a hole in his right knee) forced him to retire aged 21. Eighteen months and a period of depression later, the treatment to fix the problem belatedly worked and Hutchinson returned to the game. It has taken five years, via a couple of frustrating loan spells and more setbacks, but he is now established at Hillsborough as probably Wednesday’s best player (he recently won their player of the month for the third time this season, with 85% of the vote) and one of the best midfielders in the Championship.

“It wasn’t a big call at the time because I hated it,” he says of the decision to retire at such a young age, so bad was the pain he constantly had to cope with. “I just wanted to stop the pain and stop everything. I never wanted to come back. I didn’t want to play for Chelsea either because I blamed them for it, even though it wasn’t [their fault], it was just what happened.”

Before retiring he would take small steps forward, creating plenty of good impressions, but be forced back by the injury, unable to capitalise on these moments, not least because he could train only once a week. “It was more depressing knowing I wasn’t able to do what I could do, because of the limitations I’d had.”

For six months after retirement, Hutchinson was “not in a good place”, mental pain linked to the physical, and he pushed away virtually everyone apart from his wife. He eventually sought help at the Priory for mental health problems that were brewing even before his knee forced him out of the game and his work there was just as important as anything the gym or physios could help him with.

“I probably did as much work mentally as I did physically to come back,” he says. “I spoke to people, did a bit of brain training. You just get to a point in your life where you either go through the motions and maybe become a bit-part player or you really go for it.”

Go for it he did, returning to the game partly after encouragement from Ryan Bertrand and help at Chelsea from Eva Carneiro. When the graft on his knee finally took, he was able to trust it again and was largely pain free.

He first returned at Chelsea, then was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest in 2012. That started well (he scored on his full debut) but an injection to clear up a minor problem in his knee caused him to miss most of the season. The following year he was sent to Vitesse Arnhem but the football was not to his taste and he ended up at Wednesday in 2014.

“Everything was spiralling out of control,” he says of this period. “I just needed to take control and make my own decisions and just be a man about it. That’s what I’ve done at Sheffield Wednesday. As soon as I took charge of my own career, that’s when I started being happier and when I started reaping the benefits.”

Sam Hutchinson makes no attempts to protect his right knee. ‘I just want to show people I’ve got no qualms about doing anything, and go into things full-heartedly,’ he says. Photograph: James Marsh/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock

Hutchinson’s path marks him out as different enough but perhaps even more unusual is that he has been happy – or at least willing – to talk about his mental health issues. Did he feel any sort of responsibility to help chip away at the taboo that has existed in the game? “If it helps someone or raises awareness of some things, I’m more than happy to speak about it,” he says. “I’m a very open person so I’ll talk about anything. I found it so helpful speaking about it – it’s like a release. Even speaking to someone you don’t know, an absolute stranger – that can be a reporter, a specialist, a doctor, someone on the street, anyone – I always think it takes a weight off you. They can give a different perspective.”

There is a straightforward logic to Hutchinson’s words that is also reflected in his play. It is a little reductive to simply call him an old-fashioned midfielder who marauds into tackles, because that makes him sound like a hatchet man, but his style is certainly not one you would associate with a player who has suffered from knee problems.

It would be easy to be cautious, to try his best to protect his knee even though he has little pain now, but that is not Hutchinson’s style. “It has made me worse, be even more full-blooded, if I’m honest,” he says, although admittedly he can be a little too full-blooded, as when he was sent off against Brighton last Friday.

“I just want to show people I’ve got no qualms about doing anything, and go into things full-heartedly. If you go into things half-and-half, that’s when you’ve got a problem. I can play but I can put my foot in. I love going one-on-one with someone and just … beating them.

“It’s part of the game I enjoy,” he says, warming to a relatively old-fashioned theme. “It’s being lost more and more. If you ask the majority of players they want the contact. I know it’s to save players from injury but at the level we’re playing at you’re going to get ‘poorly timed’ tackles because it’s so quick. I don’t think you can do anything about it.”

Hutchinson’s recent brilliant form represents a culmination of the past few years and him reaching a point where he can consistently play. He has missed only one game through fitness issues this season, and it may not be a coincidence Wednesday’s results picked up not long after his move from defence into midfield. They are sixth in the Championship, with an outside chance of automatic promotion, and are at least aiming to better last season’s defeat in the play-off final, by Hull City.

Hutchinson signed a two-and-a-half-year contract at Wednesday this month and has expressed a desire to finish his career there. For a player in his sort of form, and of his rare style, offers from those higher up the food chain may be forthcoming, but Hutchinson does not seem interested. “I can only see the club going forwards,” he says. “There’s no reason for me to leave. This is the only club I’ve really played at, so it means something to be here.

“I was at Chelsea for a long time but I never had anything to do with anything they won. Even the play-off final last season – that meant more to me than anything at Chelsea, because I was part of the team. This season I feel an even bigger part of it, which is amazing. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, just play football.”