THIS week Danny Ings put a video of his rehabilitation process online. If you haven’t seen it yet, it opens with footage of the innocous way Danny picked up his injury with Rocky Balboa telling you how tough the world is. Rocky carries on telling you how the world is going to punch you in the face while newspaper clippings of the extent of the Winchester-born striker’s injury flash across the screen.

Then Al Pacino is giving his speech from Any Given Sunday while Danny Ings is shown boxing and doing squat thrusts at some fella.

Then motivational speaker Eric Thomas comes on telling us we have to want success as much as we want to breath while Danny runs in a pool, does something mad with some big spaghetti that i’m not convinced will help his knee at all and plays catch with a footy whilst Joe Gomes looks on bewildered.

After about 1:20 of all that Danny reminds us he used to be quite good at footy. He’s scoring goals for Liverpool and Burnley with all parts of his body while Lil Wayne tells everyone he only deals in threesomes. Which is something Tony D’Amato left out. We also see Danny tracking back and winning the ball against Aston Villa. Which I remember getting a big cheer at the time, but I doubt Lionel Messi would include in his highlights video. Or an overhead kick that didn’t go in.

Before a quick reminder he once got on for England, we are back in the gym and Eric Thomas is back on and making success sound far more trouble than it’s worth to be honest but it seems to be helping Danny Ings who’s pushing stuff again and is going to show us all how great he is.

It’s a funny one really. The video has obviously taken a lot of putting together but then it was released with very little fanfare through just a link on Twitter. Like he was a bit embarrassed by the whole thing.

It’s credited to Mark Leyland, but Danny was clearly involved in its production to get the access that the film-maker receives. It probably wasn’t cheap to get all those quotes, either. So what was it trying to achieve?

It’s quite possible he’s trying to remind everyone he is still here. Both the manager who hasn’t seen him play yet and the fans who are already talking about what strikers we should buy in the summer. I’ll get you goals, lads, don’t worry.

It may be part of his “brand development”. Footballers, no doubt encouraged by agents, trying to establish themselves as stars (whose reputations and therefore salaries are higher than the average player). The video certainly tries to push Danny Ings in a certain way. A normal lad who went from Bournemouth to England through hard work and graft.  Like a Winchester Drake. He might be down now but he’ll fight his way back, the only way he knows how. Started from the bottom now we’re here.

It may just be a motivational thing for himself. To keep him going in tough times, remind him of how far he has come. It does look hard, like. No way I’d be able to jump on that third box, and my knees are largely fine.

Some days in particular must be tough for him. This Sunday his mates are all playing in a cup final, the very thing he moved to Liverpool for. He’s jogging through a pool for the 80th day in a row. He must feel occasionally that he isn’t any closer to playing. This video could be to help him monitor his own development.

Or, saying all that, there is the possibility that he’s just bored.

It seems daft to say being a footballer is boring, but there is a lot of downtime.

When you read the accounts of ex-players who fell into problems with alcohol or gambling, a lot them put it down to not knowing what to do with their time — especially when they were injured or not playing.

You go in for three-four hours a day and then you are told to go home and look after yourself. Don’t go out too much, though. Basically, get a a wife as soon as you can and have kids.

I think a lot of footballers genuinely don’t know what to do with themselves.

Danny Ings has probably been banned from playing golf, he’s got a nice car already and he can’t play football. He probably bit the club’s hand off to host a curry night for the LFC foundation at Christmas just for a night out. Maybe he’s just bored of watching sports films so made his own. About himself. With lines from other sports films over the top.

Anyway, I’m glad he did it. It gave me something to write about on a slow Tuesday for a start

But it was nice to be reminded of the player he is and what he might bring. Scored more headers than you thought too, hasn’t he? If Jurgen has watched it with a smile then I guess it did a job. He’ll be hoping for a few more goals to add to it before long though.