THE Sydney Derby will really bring it home to Ali Abbas that there is a very, very long road ahead of him.

It’s been 13 weeks since a tackle by Iacopo La Rocca saw his knee give way and rupture multiple ligaments.

The midfielder is still moving gingerly, let alone starting to stress the joint.

But if his resolve slackens at any point, he will pull out the stash of printouts he consults almost every day – the social-media abuse that came his way in the hours that followed his season-ending injury in November’s derby, as well as a photo of the tackle itself.

media_camera Ali Abbas continues his rehab at the Club's Macquarie University grounds.

Abbas admits that the awful, life-changing things he witnessed and felt growing up under Saddam Hussein gives him a bigger sense of perspective on his injury. But that still didn’t stop some dark hours in the days and weeks that followed his injury, as he waited for the swelling to go down sufficiently for the surgeon to be able to operate. And paradoxically, the trolls who danced on his misfortune had the completely opposite effect.

“To be honest, a lot of negative messages I got from fans, and a lot of positive messages I got from Sydney FC fans,” he said of the thing that motivates him the most.

“The coaches and players here keep me motivated too, but those negative messages on Twitter and Facebook – they weren’t nice.

media_camera Abbas has used social media abuse as a motivation tool in his comeback.

“I asked Terry McFlynn to make a copy of them so I can see them every day to motivate me to get back to football as soon as I can.

“I also ask players like Rhyan Grant to give me as much information as I can – he had a similar injury to me. He gave me a lot of help, stuff to keep in my mind and drive myself every day to come here and do my rehab.

“It’s really hard to see the players train and watch them from the sidelines. But it’s also a chance to research myself mentally.

“It makes me question why I didn’t use more time when I was healthy to train more. I can’t wait to get back and use my time better - watching TV or playing PS-3 is just not worth it.”

media_camera Injured Ali Abbas of Sydney FC in the weights room.

The loneliness of the long distance rehab is a unique one, and Abbas has found himself “obsessed” with every part of his recovery.

“After the injury, it was really hard the first week, and the second, and the third – until the operation really. Mentally you get sick of everything.

“But I’ve been in worse, worse situations back in Iraq. Sometimes when I see some stuff it doesn’t bother me. I just need to focus on it and make it right.

“I never had a big injury like this before, and mentally I become obsessed with everything I do – I read on Google about knee rehab, think about it all the time.

“I’m happy where we’ve got to so far, and we will see how long it takes. They said 12-15 months, but I will not think about when I’ll be back, I just want it to be right.”

There is one silver lining in the injury, and she goes by the name of Chloe. Having met Abbas just before the injury, she has barely left his side since.

“It’s funny, before I got injured I met an English girl,” he said. “It was just four or five weeks before it happened in the Wanderers game, and I had no one to look after me.

“She’s been there for me from the day I got injured. I didn’t know her that much from the first few weeks but I couldn’t ask for more. It’s like God arranged her to look after me every day.

“After the operation she had to help with everything, and now everything is getting better and better.”