'My mentality never wavered' - USMNT star Tyler Adams on injury recovery, becoming a father and his long-awaited return for the CONCACAF Nations League

There's nothing fun about rehab. As a professional athlete, you adjust to games being played out in front of thousands, if not millions, of fans. With injury strikes, that is suddenly taken from you. Your life is now lived solely in front of your loves ones and the physios in charge of building you back up.

For many, it's not easy to lose that. Athletes yearn for that competition, whether it's in front of a crowd or not. Having that taken from you is difficult, no matter the level. That was the case for Adams, of course, as he went nearly one full year without really seeing the field. An injury last spring with Leeds United knockout him out of the final months of their relegation-doomed Premier League campaign. Another hamstring issue suffered early into his life at Bournemouth sent him to the sidelines until just this month.

Adams, though, kind of enjoyed his moment out of the limelight. Following a World Cup and a move to the Premier League, it was almost nice to take a step back for a little while, even if the reason for that step back wasn't ideal.

"The rehab process was a long one and an enduring one," he says. "You learn a lot about yourself in those tough moments, because, in those moments, there are no headlines about you. There are no people talking about you anymore. All of a sudden, you like fall off a cliff and you're kind of irrelevant in that moment.

"For me, I kind of enjoyed that if, I'm being completely honest with you. After such a whirlwind of a season, after the World Cup, after everything, my world kind of flipped upside down for a brief moment. Being injured, I just had a moment to regroup."

They say every cloud has a silver lining, even long-term injuries.

During his layoff, Adams enjoyed a big life moment: he became a father. The midfielder and his girlfriend Sarah welcomed a baby boy in January. In a normal year, January would have been chaotic, with Adams dealing with a pileup of English fixtures. Instead, though, he was able to spend time with his growing family in the weeks leading up to and after the birth of his son.

"There's never a good time to be injured," Adams began, "especially when playing a sport is your job, your craft everything that you want to be, but to be able to have this opportunity to become a dad in this moment and not have to think about the stresses of the game, going away and missing things or not being there possibly for the birth, just being very relaxed in all those moments and being able to support my amazing girlfriend throughout that all has been a huge blessing in disguise

"It's really the best thing that's happened to me, and these first few months so far have been a great learning experience, a great learning curve, but I wouldn't trade them for anything."

By no stretch is Adams 100 percent. He's technically played just 39 minutes this season, although he does point out that there was a seemingly endless amount of stoppage time in Bournemouth's rollercoaster win over Luton Town over the weekend.

Even so, Adams is not 90 minutes fit. In fact, it was left up to him to decide what he wanted to do during this international break. Would he prefer to continue his training and recovery either at Bournemouth or with the rest of the USMNT group, or would he rather return to the national team with the hopes of possibly making some sort of impact in the CONCACAF Nations League?

"I was talking to Gregg [Berhalter] all along and we were deciding whether I would just come into camp and be around the guys and continue my fitness and training or if I felt I could play a role on the inactive roster," he said. "If you ask me, of course, I want to play a role and be on the active roster. I think for these games, I'm still probably minute-capped a little bit it's not obviously about me coming flying out of the gates but, yeah, I know I can contribute 45 to 60 minutes."

Much has happened since the last time we saw Adams in a USMNT jersey. Berhalter left and was rehired again after interim reigns for Anthony Hudson and BJ Callaghan. The U.S. won a CONCACAF Nations League, lost a Gold Cup and earned their way back to a CONCACAF Nations League final. Folarin Balogun committed, while it seems like half the team earned transfers on the club level.

Throughout all of that, Adams was watching on from afar, unable to contribute. He had to watch the team move on without him, even if it was always going to be impossible for the group to really replace him on or off the field.

"I was a fan," Adams says. "I was the biggest fan in those moments. I'm a competitor at the end of the day, anyone that knows me knows that, so not being a part of any game, obviously I struggle with that. I want to be on the field to help my teammates, but at the end of the day, they're also really close friends and I want to see them all succeed. Anything I can do to stay in the loop or support them in moments that they're going through, I'll be the biggest cheerleader on the sideline in those moments."

Adams went on to add that he never felt like he was doing his own thing alone, as the midfielder felt he always had the support and love of his USMNT teammates and coaching staff.

"I was in touch with a lot of the players," he said. "Like I said, they're close friends. I've been in touch with Gregg throughout it all. They were constantly checking in with me. The Federation did an amazing job throughout my rehab process of just making sure I was hitting all my benchmarks and doing the right things. Anything that we could do to accelerate the process in a smart way as well, we tried to do and. ultimately, that's why I'm back now."

It's not just what he can do on the field, although there's plenty to say of that. When healthy, Adams remains the USMNT's best No. 6. The MMA midfield of Adams, Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah was fantastic at the World Cup, and the hope is that that group can continue to march on as a unit. Players like Johnny Cardoso will challenge Adams for that spot, but competition is healthy, for sure.

One of the most important things Adams brings to the U.S., though, is just his presence. There's a reason he was USMNT captain in Qatar, and there's a reason that he's in the team now despite not being close to 100 percent.

"Tyler is obviously a huge part of this team, a huge part of our culture," Turner said. "He's a guy who wears the captain's armband quite frequently when he's on the pitch for us. He's a true leader on the pitch and off the pitch. It's really great to have him back and get reintegrated with the group."

Added Callaghan: "It's great for us to have Tyler back. I think the first part is that we've got a really great culture that we've built and he was such a large part of building that culture. To have him back and get him integrated with his teammates, they go beyond teammates; they're friends. I think he just brings a big left to us."

Adams, meanwhile, is just glad to be back. The work he's put in has all been worth it. The hours of rehab and recovery, the surgery, the stressing... there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

"My mentality has never wavered," he said. "I know who I am at the end of the day, I know what I'm capable of. I just keep plugging along."