It's the symbol of his disastrous year in which he suffered a broken leg and torn ligaments in a horrific tackle during the first session of a pre-season camp with Club Brugge. It ended his hopes of playing first-team football last season, prompting him to sign with Sydney FC on loan for the 2016-17 A-League season. As a symbol, that metal plate isn't a sign of motivation.

"I just kept it because it's funny to think it was in my leg," Ibini said.

In fact, for all the hardships of that season, it paled in comparison to the one Ibini endured in 2013 when his father suddenly passed away. The lessons learnt in those years spurred the 23-year-old to come back despite requiring two operations after a tackle from his teammate went wrong and enduring what many footballers consider hell – a season on the sidelines in a foreign country, far from friends and family.

"I knew that I was a strong person already because of what I've been through with my family in terms of my father, I don't think anything could be any worse than that. For me, If I could get through that and my family could get through that, for me this wasn't a big thing to overcome," Ibini said.

The most difficult part of his injury-ridden year wasn't the mental isolation many endure, especially when abroad, but in delivering the news to his tight-knight family back home in Sydney.

"I think the hardest moment was telling my family, knowing how devastated they were because it's a big part of their life too, my football," Ibini said.

Being close to family played a big part in his decision to return to Sydney FC as well as being reunited with his former coach Graham Arnold, whom he played under for five seasons. His only objective is to return to the field after spending more than a year away from it and is already set to be back in full training by early September.

"It wasn't that hard [to return to the A-League] because my situation is a bit different to others. I've been injured for a whole season and I'm still not back," he said.