Calem Nieuwenhof hopes to put the last year behind him as he looks ahead to tonight’s Scottish Cup meeting with St. Mirren.
The midfielder has spent the last year beset by a recurring hamstring issue, with the Aussie paying tribute to the staff and teammates at Hearts for helping him through it.
With a place in the quarter finals at stake in Paisley this evening, Calem is thrilled his return has coincided with such a pivotal point in the season.
“Yeah, it's been a long time coming,” he told the media ahead of the game.
“It's been tough because as a footballer, all I want is to play football. I love the game, I love competing, and to go such a long time without that, it's been a tough year or so. But the support from my teammates and the staff here has been incredible so I couldn't thank them enough.
“Initially it was a hamstring injury. Obviously, hamstrings can just be really tough and I ended up having a couple of reoccurrences and it just was really niggly because it involved the tendon.
“From there it just got longer and longer, and it was really frustrating for me to be having such small setbacks. Now I've been feeling good and I'm just so happy to be back on the pitch again and hopefully being able to play again very soon.”
The Aussie’s return comes at a welcome time with the Jambos unbeaten in 2025, and fresh off the back of a 6-0 demolition of Dundee at Dens Park.
Watching from the sidelines, Calem has noticed the improvements across the pitch and reckons there’s further scope for improvement before the season’s end.
“The win at the weekend was pretty special, 6-0 against Dundee,” he added.
“The team's been in a good form at the moment. We've been scoring more goals, and we've also had a bit more game management when it comes down to late in the game.
“I think we've just had that little edge that we missed earlier on in the season and that's allowed us to go on a good run of form and be unbeaten in the last few games. Hopefully we can just carry that forward.
“The Scottish Cup's an awesome opportunity, I was lucky enough to be involved last season in a few big games, a semi-final at Hampden. As a footballer, those are the games you want to be involved in and we know how much these trophies mean to the fans.
“If we can do our best to go deep in the cup and be involved in those massive games then that'd be huge for all of us.”
You can catch The Hoff's full pre-match press conference on Hearts TV.
