For 29 consecutive matches, Daniel Krutzen sat and watched.

The Dutch central defender looked on from the sidelines for 290 days while his Forge FC teammates competed in a CPL Final, took Toronto FC to penalties, and played Concacaf Champions League football at the Azteca.

Krutzen, by many accounts the best centre-back in the Canadian Premier League in 2021, missed all his club’s big moments over the past nine months, only returning to the pitch this past Saturday in a 2-1 win over Cavalry FC. The 25-year-old suffered an ACL tear moments before halftime in the Concacaf League semifinal Nov. 24 against FC Motagua, and he hadn’t played since.

The prognosis came swiftly after his injury: surgery, and a rehab process that would keep Krutzen off the pitch until at least the summer of 2022. So began the journey.

“You have good days and bad days,” Krutzen told CanPL.ca recently. “The first two weeks after surgery are the toughest because you’re basically doing nothing at all for the whole day. Those two weeks were tough; you get time to think a lot, which is, from a different perspective, also nice because you can reflect on what you’ve done the past years, stuff like that.

“As the months go by you just take it day by day, take the steps necessary to get back as soon as possible. You work with the team on the side of the field; I see those people every day, they work hard, so it’s also a matter of enjoying the process getting back. I’ve taken some pride in that for sure.”

The timing of the injury added to its sting — in two ways. Krutzen went down in that Motagua encounter — the first leg, played in Hamilton — around the 40th minute. With coach Bobby Smyrniotis hoping his side could make it to halftime before substituting Krutzen (or perhaps getting him back, not yet knowing the severity of the injury), the defender stood on the touchline as he watched Motagua open the scoring in the 43rd minute, and the Honduran side went on to win the tie on away goals.

Soon after that night, it became clear that Krutzen would be missing more than just a half of football. He missed the following week’s second leg in Tegucigalpa, and a few days after that he watched from the stands as Forge lost to Pacific in the CPL Final.

“You want to end a season on a high note, with the possibility to win a championship,” Krutzen said. “To go out like that was very sour, very annoying for me personally.

“I feel like I was okay in the next week; it’s something that happened, you can’t change it. It’s something you have to accept and just move on. It was definitely annoying to not be able to play in the CPL Final, that’s something I’d been looking forward to the whole season.”

Tragically, that wasn’t the only thing Krutzen had been looking forward to but missed.

Forge’s appearance in the Concacaf Champions League in February was earned partly on the back of Krutzen’s resolute presence. He’s played 78 per cent of the club’s total Concacaf League minutes, with three goals and five clean sheets along the way. Yet, when Forge stepped out at the fabled Estadio Azteca to play Cruz Azul, Krutzen wasn’t there.

Likewise, Krutzen played all but 29 minutes of Forge’s 11-game 2020 championship run at the Island Games, which qualified them for the Canadian Championship final they played in June. Again, though, he could do nothing as Forge fell just barely short of lifting the Voyageurs Cup.

If anything, missing those moments has served only to fuel Krutzen’s desire to get back on the pitch.

The messaging from Smyrniotis and the rest of the coaching staff has been clear throughout the 2022 campaign: Commit to the process, don’t rush it, and come back when you’re ready. As a result, Krutzen has spent many a training session working out on his own — once he was even allowed to step on a pitch.

The past few months, Krutzen has felt safe taking it slow because Forge have done well without him this year. He pointed out that the Hamilton club still has the best goal differential in the league, with both the most goals scored and the fewest conceded so far.

These few months watching Forge from the outside have been instructive for Krutzen, even though he’d much prefer to be on the pitch with his teammates. He explained that he’s learned a lot about the team — including the new players he has yet to play with, like Ashtone Morgan and Alessandro Hojabrpour.

Above all, though, Krutzen still sees the same DNA in the club that’s been there since day one.

“It’s been interesting from the side of the field, because you get to see from a different perspective,” he said.

“I feel like in the past years we’ve always started a bit slow, but once we find our stride, find our rhythm I think we’re a very good team and then it doesn’t necessarily matter who’s on the field. I think the process that we have going here, the rhythm and the chemistry on the field that we create, is something that’s amazing about this club. Different players can step in and do the same thing.”

Slowly, however, he made progress. He eased himself back into running, began working with the ball, and then at last — a few weeks before his debut against Cavalry — Krutzen joined his teammates in full training. The latter moment, Krutzen said, was a special one.

“It’s unreal,” he recalled. “I was out there with the boys a couple weeks ago for the first time. Just, like, getting an applause as you walk on the field was amazing.”

Of all Forge players, though, perhaps none was more excited for Krutzen to return than Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson. The Swedish midfielder has barely missed a second for his club this season, but he’s been forced to play centre-back in Krutzen’s absence. He’s darn good at it — worthy of four Gatorade Team of the Week nods, at least — but Achinioti-Jönsson has admitted he’s still much more comfortable higher up the pitch.

“Him and I talked about it every day,” Krutzen said, grinning. “It’s like, ‘Man, if I’m back then you can go forward again and play in the midfield.’ He’s definitely excited for my return.”

Krutzen finally got word that he would be returning to the pitch last week, and he went on to play 75 minutes in Saturday’s game against Cavalry. Achinioti-Jönsson slotted back into the number six role, and the seamless chemistry between the two was on full display, as if they hadn’t been apart for a moment. Krutzen, who put in an outstanding performance on and off the ball, went on to be named the CPL’s Player of the Week after his triumphant return.

As he stood on the Tim Hortons Field turf postmatch, satisfyingly exhausted from an exhilarating return to play, Krutzen couldn’t help but smile. The feeling of winning was back — and in emphatic fashion, against a tough opponent in front of the largest home crowd Forge had seen for a CPL match all year.

“I missed this whole thing,” Krutzen said. “It’s tough sitting up in the stands with the boys playing, but once you’re out there it’s fantastic.

“Bobby said before the game, ‘This is your first final of the season.’ Being thrown into a game like that right away, it was great.”

As the 2022 season reaches its zenith, each game Forge plays will be another final to them. They’ve played a few of them over the years, but they have yet to win one without Daniel Krutzen.

Now that the Dutchman is back to anchor their defence, their sights are locked firmly on a third CPL title.

"I missed this whole thing" ⚒️

After 290 days on the sidelines, @Danielkrutzen made his #CanPL return from injury for @ForgeFCHamilton and had a brilliant performance to help his side defeat @CPLCavalryFC

He caught up with @KristianJack after the match ? pic.twitter.com/U4pvlgpXPr

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) September 11, 2022