For Kyle Howkins read ‘Total Desire’. There’s always a tale around senior players at a football club. For stalwart defender Kyle Howkins his narrative is shot through with his motivation to play football despite his bodies’ shortcomings. He’s very much our senior guy.
Kyle has made 125 appearances for Hereford, that’s more than at his other clubs put together and he’s signed up for more. He’s averaging over 40 games per season – his consistency is quite astonishing. Within the context, there’s something of a miracle here and I’m uncertain whether this transformation has ever been fully explained. Check out his history below. How did he move from those maddening years to being the first name on the team sheet? Surely more than “being part time suits him”? For certain games, he resembles a partly wrapped Egyptian mummy. Whilst admiring Kyle’s grit and determination, I can’t help wondering about long term legacy for so many under strain body parts. Over the decades I’m spoken at length with many ex-footballers who live with daily pain.
Kyle was once with West Bromwich Albion and fortunate to be part of one of the best academies in the UK. From there he moved into their professional ranks and a pre-season visit to Edgar Street with the WBA U21s.
His first loan was to a struggling Harriers team during 15/16. The Step One club were desperate for a big bloke at the back and they got a “big daft galoot” on a youth loan according to manager Hockaday. Howkins was properly thrown in at the deep end making his debut against Stourbridge in the FA Cup. That Stour won 3-0 was not even a surprise so poor were Kiddy at the time. The defender made 10 appearances without injury and impressed.
So much so that Steve Evans of Mansfield “Albion’s Tony Pulis is my mate” got his dubious friend to loan Kyle to the East Midlanders. Steve Evans: “He is an incredibly fit boy and I don’t know which is tallest – him or my garage door. He is a nice young man as well and that is important.” The defender suffered knee and hamstring injuries which put him out for months. He returned to Town’s first team but was then sidelined again for 2 months. Howkins was learning resilience the hard way.
He trained and worked his way back to fitness again. His 6-month loan spell at Cambridge during 2017/18 was then restricted to just two games thanks to a recurring and long running hamstring injury.
Howkins spent the back of half the season with Port Vale. The loan was cut short because of his knee. Speaking to the Sentinel, Kyle said: “It has been frustrating. My knee has been causing some problems for some time now and I know I need to get it right but playing a game Saturday and then Monday put a bit of pressure on to my knee and it swelled up a bit.”
“I am 21 now, I am getting old. I need to be out and playing proper football. Maybe a couple of years ago I could have stayed at West Brom but now is a good time to come out and start learning.” Albion medicos worked on his knee and thought they’d made progress.
He made his WBA first team debut at the age of 22, just the ten years after joining the Academy Howkins replaced Craig Dawson for the last 18 minutes of a 2018 League Cup game v Mansfield – a side for whom he’s played on loan two years earlier.
As he said to Albion media “I’ve been at the club since I was 12 and there have been very frustrating times for me having spent time out injured. “He added, rather wistfully:” I’m hoping to crack on and stay fit without picking up any more injuries.”
22 is very old to make a first team debut. Howkins added 30 minutes game time in the Crystal Palace League Cup game a month later. Turned out the Baggies second stringers couldn’t deal with the Palace reserves who won easily. Howkins did have the best chance to score but his header was saved. He played with James Morrison, Gareth Barry and Chris Brunt. Once. Weeks later, his knee gave way once again so no more football for the rest of 2019.
He returned to the Valiants for a second loan spell in January 2019. However, Howkins made just three appearances as they waited for the centre-half to recover match fitness following his injury. Hard to fully imagine his mental state by this point. He was young, good at football, a career was right there but his body kept letting him down. With less than one hours first team action for the Baggies, Kyle was released by his parent club that summer.
Apart from the loss of income, a cv to make any manager queasy and job uncertainty, the now ex-baggie no longer had access to the Albion’s highly skilled medical team. There was much to be concerned about.
Still there was interest and he chose to sign for Newport on a 2-year deal. ‘He has the potential to play higher” said Newport Gaffer Michael Flynn. The defender had much potential but there was a snag…
Kyle suffered another depressing hamstring injury v Barrow in just the fourth game. He recovered only to be sent off against Portsmouth. Just another regular Howkins season. In November, he had a nasty clash of heads with Maldon & Tiptree striker Charlie Hughes and had a fit after falling to the ground; he suffered a fractured skull and was out of action for six weeks.
“I remember everything [leading up to it]” said the defender to club media. “I remember having the fit on the floor and that was it. They put the mask on me and I was knocked out. I woke up the next morning in hospital and all the family was there, which was nice to see. There were a lot of pipes hanging out of me and the family said the first thing I said when I woke up was ‘did we win?’ and thankfully the boys did.” The banged-up defender was out for 6 weeks in a season prematurely ended by covid.
Into his last contracted season and with 5 months left on his contract, the defender was loaned to Solihull for the rest of the season. It was a kindness as the Black Country man had lost his Newport place.
A severe ACL knee injury 7 games into his Solihull loan kept him out of the game for two years. Two years! Who comes back from that? And is it wise to do so? Surely friends and family tried to persuade him to give up, specialists too possibly. Those 24 months .. without the support of a football club physio … we can only guess at the sheer bloody-minded determination needed.
In July 2023, Paul Caddis gave the defender a chance, firstly behind the scenes at training before being one of 7 triallists playing in a Pegasus friendly. He caught the eye- hard not to given his size. Easy to see he’d played higher.
Said the Gaffer “he has single handedly recovered from a long-term injury on his own – the mental strength, hard work, desire and character that takes from anyone in any walk of life has to be applauded.” Kyle originally signed on non-contract terms an arrangement later upgraded.
The football transformation was underway.
Simon Wright
