After making his debut, winning a contract extension and playing eight games on the trot, the 18-year-old’s dream start to life in the A-League looked in jeopardy when he fell awkwardly on his left ankle, sustaining ligament damage.

The early prognosis was six to 12 months, yet the Riverside Olympic product returned to first team action last weekend after only five weeks on the sidelines.

Atkinson played the first 75 minutes at Perth before being subbed off, and then watched from the bench as 10-man City gave up a lead to go down 2-1.

Despite suffering cramp late in the game, he appears likely to line up for his second Melbourne derby on Friday night – an occasion which looked an unlikely prospect five weeks ago.

“At the time of the injury the first thing going through my head was ‘this is going to be bad’,” Atkinson said.

“I’m a young guy starting to play and it’s just heartbreaking knowing that you can’t play, but it was a good result for what could have happened.

“It’s only five weeks I was out - the third day of injury I was in the gym doing upper body, doing anything I could just to keep the body ticking over.

“After a week I was walking on it, two and half weeks I was jogging and then the third or fourth week I was running as fast as I could - it all moved pretty quickly.”

Atkinson’s ankle will take another year to fully heal but was given the all-clear from City’s medical team providing it’s kept strapped up.

The 18-year-old said he would soldier on through the pain for the remainder of the campaign. 

“There’s still going to be some pain through the rest of the season but I’m on the right medication and taking it well and it’s not going to get worse, so if I can play through the pain then I can play.”

“The only pain it’s really bringing me is the swelling around the ankle but other than that I’m fine.”

Returning to his Warren Joyce-led role at full-back, Atkinson has transferred his focus from rehabilitation to City’s finals tilt.  

The City Blues sit eight points behind Newcastle on the A-League table but remain an outside chance of claiming second spot with six games to go.

Four top-six opponents await in the next four rounds, which will not only shape City’s season but also help expose Atkinson to the rigours of high-pressure football early in his career. 

“I feel like I’ve taken my chance pretty well as a young boy I’m still 18 and I’m still only learning.

“It’s still sort of a new position, my whole life I’ve been playing higher up the field but the coach finds that I have the right attributes for a right-back for the team.

“But obviously I’m still young, I’ve still got a lot to learn so if I keep on learning I think I can develop at a quick rate and hold down a spot for the future years to come.”