Seeing a player who has battled hard through personal adversity to return to their peak performance will never not be a satisfying sight.
That’s exactly the case with Stewart Nixon, the flying forward whose injury hell finally looks to be behind him.
At the start of this season, the fleet-footed attacker made a surprise loan switch to Premier Intermediate League outfit Queen’s University. He’d dropped down two divisions, plying his trade for his contracted club Carrick Rangers before a blow to the knee in a clash with Coleraine in November 2021 was to open an unwanted stop-start chapter of the then-24-year-old’s burgeoning career.
Try as he might to come back, he suffered setbacks along the way that would lead to Nixon missing almost an entire year of football following a 6-2 defeat to Glentoran in March 2022 before finally re-entering the fold for the run-in of the following season.
And the pain of what was an ACL rupture and damaged cartilage that required surgery wasn’t just physical.
The injury took a toll on his mental health, a theme that Nixon has been refreshingly open about, and he admitted that he had considered stepping away from football entirely during the period he was absent.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph in February 2023, he explained: “A few times I felt my career was over.
“I wasn’t able to lift my daughter Harper, who has just turned two, and you can imagine what it was like not being able to interact properly with her.
“It left me wondering how I could play football when I was in so much pain and agony. I didn’t want to risk my health to play football.
“My family and friends really helped me but I came so close to ringing (Carrick manager) Stuarty (King) after my surgery and saying, ‘just cancel my contract as I’m not coming back from this’.”
But Nixon kept the faith. And his decision to swap Taylors Avenue for The Dub proved a masterstroke.
I saw the former Coleraine star in action during a County Antrim Shield encounter at Clandeboye Park between Ards and Queen’s back in September 2023 – a game he marked with a goal.
Although it wasn’t an effort in victory, as James Lavery’s Students were beaten 2-1 in Bangor and eliminated from the competition at the last-16 stage, Nixon was lively; he seemed refreshed, re-energised and revitalised, like he had fallen back in love with the sport again after almost two years of hurt.
Now 26, he was at the heart of much of what the third-tier club did well that night, bagging an equaliser half an hour in when he was alert to pounce on a goalkeeping lapse by Ards stopper Neil Shields and continuing to collect the ball wherever he felt he could make an impact. That is to say, he enjoyed quite a lot of touches of note.
It was no flash in the pan, either, as Ballymena man Nixon was an architect-in-chief of the south Belfast institution’s promotion push having netted 19 times in the white shirt – including the opener in a BetMcLean Cup encounter at Windsor Park against Linfield – before earning his return to the big time.
He was recalled by Carrick in January, but he was shortly off to Crusaders where he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract to link up with Stephen Baxter’s squad – and with the wind beating on his sails, he has picked up where he left off in the top-tier.
By the end of the month, Nixon’s bright displays earned him starting responsibilities for the Hatchetmen and, on Saturday, a first goal in red and black during the Belfast derby defeat to Glentoran. It, too, was an equaliser in an eventual 2-1 loss, but don’t be surprised if it is the springboard to bigger and better things for the striker on the Shore Road in months and years to come.
It says a lot about the man and his character – and you would be hard-pressed not to crack a smile at his upward trajectory.
Featured image from David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press.
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