Thursday 12 January 2017 21:35, UK
Ahead of facing his former club Reading live on Sky Sports, Queens Park Rangers' Jamie Mackie speaks to Lewis Jones about making up for lost time after his injury hell.
Jamie Mackie isn't your ordinary footballer.
He's one that lives for the moment. He doesn't believe in regrets. He doesn't get involved in dressing room politics. He gets on with his job. He even enjoys pre-season.
Having spent eight months out injured after sustaining ankle ligament damage in training while working his way back from a hamstring operation, the QPR man appreciates every second of what he does for a living - playing for a club he says is "in his blood".
"It's the best feeling in the world to be out there playing football every week - players take that for granted," Mackie told Sky Sports ahead of Thursday's night clash, which is live on Sky Sports 1 HD.
"If you have been injury-free you don't know what it's like. To have that taken away from you is hard."
Mackie is making up for lost time.
After enduring a run of six straight defeats in the league, the 'return of the Mack' to the Rs' starting line-up saw QPR register two much-needed Sky Bet Championship wins in 48 hours over the festive period.
Defying logic, Mackie played the full 90 minutes in both games. If you didn't believe his appetite for pre-season, you do now.
As those performances suggest, Mackie used his time out injured productively. Apart from driving his wife up the wall that is.
"She hopes I'm going to play football for a long, long, time as she doesn't want me under her feet," he said.
"She'll be wheeling me out to play when I'm 41 let alone 31!"
Mackie, despite being isolated from the first-team, put himself through a rigorous, personal pre-season schedule.
"I feel amazing - as fit as I've ever been," he said.
"I feel like I've been given a season back in my legs. I feel fitter and stronger than before I was injured.
"The medical team who have been working with me have been unbelievable. To get back out there and get a couple of wins was a feeling I've missed. We need to try and build on that in the league."
The man tasked with overseeing the challenge at QPR is boss Ian Holloway - a man who swapped the TV studio for the dugout again after he was offered "an opportunity he just couldn't turn down" at a club he spent 10 years serving as a player and a manager over the past two decades.
Holloway would be the first to admit that it's been a bigger job than he imagined.
After enjoying a perfect homecoming with a win over Norwich, Holloway's QPR went on to win just two of their next nine games, scoring only five times and were dumped out of the FA Cup on Saturday against Blackburn.
In the aftermath, Holloway gave a brutal assessment of his team's performance and commitment levels, vowing that the starting XI "will never be picked again".
Mackie, however, was spared from the criticism.
"There will be changes," Holloway said. "You've got to get your foot in and we didn't do it well enough.
"Jamie Mackie did - he tackled everybody. But where's the rest? Come on."
Mackie and Holloway - on the face of it - are two peas from the same pod.
Mackie played a key role in QPR's promotion to the Premier League under Neil Warnock in 2011, before scoring some important goals as they successfully battled relegation the following season.
Everything Holloway and Mackie have achieved in their professional careers has been built on foundations of hard work and an ability to rub off on other people.
Although he's only been back in the first-team picture for a month, Mackie can sense a special working relationship blossoming between the pair, who have both been bitten by the QPR bug.
When asked if the two have become 'besties', he laughs: "We share a massive enthusiasm for the game - we're really similar in that sense," Mackie said.
"I'm really looking forward to working with him further. Although I'm 31 I still want to improve as a player and the style he wants to play should enable me to learn more.
"His only concern now is the welfare of QPR. He has a clear identity of how we want to play. The approach he's taking is that he wants players that are 100 per cent on board and committed."
Holloway is keen to rid a culture of players being comfortable at Loftus Road. He has spoken of bringing in Premier League standards from the way players approach training and what they produce on a matchday.
Tjaronn Chery, Karl Henry, Sebastian Polter and Sandro are set to move on in January and others have been told a similar fate awaits them if they don't follow Holloway's football philosophy and adhere to his commitment levels.
It's his way, or the highway, it seems. A ruthless tactic from the QPR boss, but one Mackie isn't surprised by.
"Every manager who is new to a club is going to try and get players in to implement their style - it's not a problem - that's how football works," he said.
Leadership has been in short supply in a QPR side that hasn't won a game when they've fallen behind in since beating Bolton 4-3 at Loftus Road in October 2015 - 61 league games ago.
As one of the more experienced members of the QPR squad, Mackie feels a responsibility to improve the on-field management, especially now that young players like Ryan Manning and Eberechi Eze have been thrust into first-team action.
"I love seeing a younger player come into the first-team," Mackie said.
"I love their desire and hunger to impress. They are the type of players I want to play with. They do that naturally because they're trying to pave their way in the professional game. You do need that blend though with experience. That's the hardest part, to find that right blend.
"Ryan Manning has come in and was quality on his debut. Lads who weren't even training with us earlier this season are now in the picture. They've caught the manager's eye in training and been given their chance. It's a great thing in terms of motivation for the senior players."
Mackie is hoping to play a key role for his team on Thursday night against his former club Reading, live on Sky Sports 1 HD.
The forward spent the 2014/15 season loan at the Royals, where he was part of the team that reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
Promotion could be on the agenda this season for Jaap Stam's side, who are placed third in the league and could move to within three points of Newcastle with victory.
"They're having a great season," he admits.
"The lads I know there absolutely love the manager. They look confident and have some talented players. It's going to be a tough fixture, however, we're going there on the back of two wins in the league.
"Ian Holloway is a manager is intense in terms of his preparation for a game. He'll have a plan of how to stop them and find a way for us to win against their style. It's down to us on Thursday to implement that tactic."
The Reading defenders are unlikely to get a moments peace with Mackie leading the line. He'll chase all night long - then chase again.
And he'll relish every moment of it.
