Big interview: 'It's good to be nasty,' says Rotherham United nice guy Jamie Jellis

Jamie Jellis is sitting in his black shorts and red training top and there's an ugly welt on his right leg.

It's nothing to do with the injury that frustratingly kept the midfielder out of action in the early stages of his Rotherham United career.

No, things have been a bit tasty in training and a teammate has left a calling card during a session at Roundwood.

The new boy wears the wound without complaint.

"We need a nasty streak and that bit of competitiveness," he says. "Training is preparing us for a game on Saturday, and I don't mind having marks and bruises."

The 25-year-old spent nearly two months on the sidelines after picking up a calf problem just two matches into the 2026/27 campaign. An anticipated absence of 10 days turned into one of seven weeks, but boss Alex Bruce wasted no time in bringing him back into the strongest area of the Millers team.

"Yeah, the competition is really good in the middle of the park," Jellis says. "That's what you need. You don't want to be comfortable, you've got to always be looking over your shoulder.

"If you have the shirt, you've got to know that someone's waiting on the bench ready to take it. We're individuals in a team sport and you want to be playing. The competition's really good. We've got really good players in the middle of the park.

"For the gaffer to have that sort of trust in me means a lot. I want to put my all in for him, for the team. He's been really good with me in the last four or five weeks, and he's helped me deal with some issues away from the pitch as well.

"Just a phone call and a text here makes you give that extra five/ten-per cent or him on a Saturday. I like having a good relationship with the person who I play for. I want to repay him with my performances."

The player had spent two injury-free years with Walsall, racking up a century of appearances, before heading to AESSEAL New York Stadium in the summer. but a mid-August twinge in training told him that his long run of fitness was coming to an end.

"I went to push off and felt a little tweak in my soleus muscle," he says. "I went back out to train when I was supposed to and just felt it. I went for another scan and that was sent off to a specialist. When I came back the first time, it was a bit too early. As I was running, it was gradually coming on again. I just thought: 'I'm going to go in before I make it even worse.'"

"Being out was tough, but being a footballer is still the best job in the world, and that's how you've got to look at it. There's nothing else you'd want to be doing. You're still in a privileged position, you're still thankful every day that you're a professional. You come to the training ground, do your work and you're around the lads. You're in a good place and a good atmosphere.

"The timing of it wasn't ideal. You've come to a new club and you want to get going as soon as possible and show everyone what you can do. I showed glimpses of that, hopefully, in pre-season and the first couple of matches. You have to turn your focus into supporting the lads while you're out.

"Coming back into training is massive. You get that buzz back, you get that excitement to be back out on the grass and getting back on the footballs."

We're chatting in the interview room at Roundwood earlier this month, and Jellis is one game into his comeback. He'll go on to start the next two before the devastating development that he will be out for several months with knee damage.

That day's workout hasn't long been finished, and the mud and sweat are stained into his white socks. He's covered a lot of ground; he always does. Only Kian Spence is considered a better runner in the squad.

He's friendly and speaks well, a posher accent than we're used to hearing in South Yorkshire betraying his Buckinghamshire upbringing. There's a little moustache and beard, but not much of either, as if he hasn't quite decided yet whether to persevere with them.

Life in a hotel is over for him because he's found himself a place of his own.

"Yeah, I've got a house now, a nice little three-bed," he says. "It's just past Swinton, a new build. It's really nice. I'm in the process of getting it all done up and making it feel like a home. It's ideal - ten minutes away from the training ground. I can get up half an hour before I have to be in here."

When he gets back to his new place, his thoughts will turn away from football as he focuses on the business he set up before his switch to the Millers.

"I started just over a year ago. You leave training around three o'clock and you've got three, four hours before you want to settle down. I just wanted to do something that was relevant to the person that I am. I banged head with one of my friends that I met through Walsall and we decided to set up a recovery-product company.

"I've know people in the game, and he's a graphic designer. He does all the hard work and I just have the contacts, really. He does more of the heavy lifting. We meet up once a week just to go over things. We're doing really well.

"We do things like compression boots and compression sleeves for the lads to wear on the coach to away games and things like that. We're moving into red-light glasses to block out all the harmful rays from your phone.

"We're steadily expanding, bringing in new things. We may do supplements in a couple of years' time. I want to focus mainly on our existing products at the minute. We've got ice baths that we've sampled and things like that. We're bringing in as much as we can while still keeping it balanced

"I wanted to start preparing for life after football, and I wanted it to be relevant to my profession. Being a footballer, your recovery is massive."

It's two days before the trip to Fleetwood Town and he's anticipating having to stand up at the team hotel the following night and perform his initiation song.

He seems pretty relaxed about it.

'What have you got lined up? I don't know yet," he says. "I do a different one every time I go somewhere new. Sometimes I'll do a rap song. It depends how I'm feeling. It might be a little bit of Ed Sheeran.

"Nah, I'm not nervous. I think it's good. It's important to make a fool of yourself a little bit and get involved with the lads. I've obviously been here for more than three months now, so it's a bit easier than doing it in the first couple of weeks."

Sadly, Jellis will be watching from the stands in the future and unable to influence the Millers' mission to move up the rankings from the lower reaches of League Two.

"We know it's frustrating for the fans," he says. "As players, we recognise we've not had the best of performances. Games are coming thick and fast. If you win your next three, you're right back at the right end of the league.

"We know that, coming into the winter period, the games are going to come Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday. We're looking to go on a run, and it's important that we start it now. We won't sort of shy away from that. We need to demand more from each other.

"We've talked about being solid and keeping clean sheets. You can't lose when you keep clean sheets. With the players that we have in our changing room, we shouldn't be where we are right now."

He repeats the need for a nasty streak, and I look down again at the angry mark on the side of his shin.

'Who put that one on you,' I ask, and the culprit is unveiled.

"Just me and Jayce Fitzgerald having a little bit in the midfield," he grins. "I don't mind it."