As Nahki Wells looks forward to his first match as a Premier League player next season, fellow Bermudian Rai Simons is just looking forward to his first match, period.

The Chesterfield striker is back home recuperating from surgery for a ruptured Achilles tendon, an injury serious enough that he probably will not start the season until September or October. He has been undergoing physiotherapy for the injury as well as spending time in the gym maintaining upper body strength.

The injury occurred on Easter Monday and ended Simons’s season on the same day that his team were officially relegated to Sky Bet League Two. Simons went off injured in the 34th minute of Chesterfield’s 3-1 defeat by Scunthorpe United. He is not sure when he will return to the Chesterfield team, but has been given permission by the club to remain in Bermuda until mid-August, when the new season in England is just getting under way.

“I’m going to miss two to three months at the start of the season, so hopefully I’ll be back in October or November,” Simons told The Royal Gazette prior to a session at Alchemy Fitness Studio under personal trainer James Adams. “I would rather this happen towards the end of the season rather than the beginning and then miss the entire season.

“They’ve allowed me to stay here for a few months since I’m not really able to do anything. I’m going back in mid-August and will continue my physio work and gym work over there.”

Simons, advised by the doctors not to fly more than four hours, spent a week on a cruise ship from Southampton on England’s south coast to New York before flying on to Bermuda at the end of last month.

“I just did what I had to do, I was on the ship for a week, it was the only way,” said Simons who has remained upbeat through the whole ordeal. A tattoo on his left arm which reads “God helps those who help themselves” sums up the 21-year-old’s attitude.

The injury could not have come at a worse time, having been given a start in the team after spending much of the campaign on the bench. He made 24 appearances, mostly as a substitute.

“I jumped up to try to win a header and when I landed I just felt something,” he said of the injury. “The physio told me straight away that the Achilles was gone. I knew straight away I would be out for a while, six to nine months.

“I can’t do anything about the injury, just work to fix it and make it stronger. It was a very serious injury, a complete rupture. It happened on Easter Monday and three days later I was in surgery.

“I’m a bit more mobile now, I was in a hard cast for two weeks and then in this boot for a month. Even with the boot on I was still using the crutches for a while, until I was fully comfortable walking in it.”

It was while he was recovering from the injury that Simons was offered a new contract by the club with new manager Gary Caldwell, who took over in January, looking to build a young team for the new season. Simons was one of four players to be handed new deals by the club, who confirmed that 12 players would be leaving.

The striker was just starting to make a breakthrough when the injury occurred. Caldwell thinks that Simons has lots to offer next season.

“I think he can get better, physically, he can still improve and once he plays games regularly he will improve,” Caldwell said recently. “It is never easy having to tell players that they will not be offered new contracts. But it is something that has to be done as we look to rebuild over the summer and shape a squad capable of competing in League Two. We have made contract offers to four players and hope that they will all sign.”

The contract offer came at a good time for Simons who is aiming for a full recovery. He has enjoyed a splash of Bermuda salt water and will use his break back home to experience Cup Match for the first time in almost ten years. Professionals in England are always back in preseason training at that time.

“I got a new deal offered so I didn’t have to worry about going into next season injured and without a club,” said a relieved Simons. “That’s always a good thing.

“It’s been up and down but that comes with the job.

“I just have to take it on the chin. I’ve been through it so I know what it is like, hopefully I don’t have to go through it again. I just want to get regular football, establish myself in the English game and become a household name.”

Simons was at Hillsborough for Huddersfield’s semi-final second-leg tie against Sheffield Wednesday when Wells netted one of the penalties in the shoot-out victory which took them to the Wembley final. He has seen Wells on a few occasions while back home and is inspired by his accomplishments.

“Sheffield is only around the corner from Chesterfield, so I saw them win on penalties,” he said. “Since it was so close, only about 20 minutes from my house, I decided to give my support to them and thankfully they pulled through.

“I look at him as a mentor, somewhere I want to be. Everybody who wants to play [professional] football in Bermuda should look at what he’s done and want to emulate it or do better.

“I was only young when Shaun Goater was playing in the Premier League so I didn’t really understand how big a deal it is. Now that I’m out there playing in the league, to make it to the Premier League is a big, big achievement.

“I’m very happy for him and wish him all the best. Hopefully I can get some game time, show consistency and with good fortune see where it can take me.”

It might be easy to relax while back home but Simons remains a man with a clear focus.

“I’m not doing anything, I’m coming to the gym three times a week and going to physio two or three times a week, as well,” he said. “It’s not a vacation for me. I get to be home but I have to do my work as well.

“This will be the first time I’ll see Cup Match since I was about 13.”