Few athletes are as tied to a city they play in, as the way Nick Chubb is to Cleveland.

And not because of a monetary or contract shackle, like Deshaun Watson is.

Before Chubb’s injury, he was widely regarded as the best running back in the NFLGetty

In Chubb’s case, it is the exact opposite.

He had no guarantee money left on his contract.

The Browns had all the power and could have cut him and moved on.

He said as much in an emotional letter he wrote for The Player’s Tribune, ahead of his much anticipated return.

“I had no guaranteed money left,” Chubb wrote.

“The Browns had all the leverage. They could’ve left me high and dry, like so many guys in this league. But they had my back. You all had my back.”

Chubb mentioned in his letter that the reason the Browns never even entertained the possibility of cutting the 28-year-old running back is because of how much he meant to the city.

And that wasn’t coming from Chubb, that is what Cleveland’s front office directly told Chubb’s agent.

After going down in Week 2 last season with a gruesome injury that tore his anterior and medial collateral ligaments, on top of taking damage to the medial capsule and meniscus, Chubb is set to make his highly anticipated return on Sunday at home versus the Cincinnati Bengals.

A return that Chubb himself wasn’t sure was ever going to happen.

This was the second time Chubb had suffered a devastating lower body injury, the other time being when he was a sophomore at GeorgiaGetty

“The dark thoughts start creeping in,” Chubb wrote. “‘I really did it again, huh?’ 

“They might not be able to put me back together again this time.

“This might be a wrap. 

“Why me, Lord? Just …….. Why me.”

Unofrutantely for Chubb, this wasn’t his first experience dealing with a horrific lower body injury, as he also tore up his knee when he was a sophomore at Georgia.

This time round, he knew what to expect.

“When I was lying on the ground against Pittsburgh, I wasn’t so naive anymore. I had so many metal nails and plates in my knee from the first one.

“I’m thinking: ‘Please don’t let those nails be splintered all over my leg right now.’ 

“I knew what rehab from something like this actually meant. I know what nine weeks in a straight-knee brace does to a leg.

“When I finally got out and saw my leg the first time, it had atrophied down to the size of my arm. I thought I was never gonna walk the same again, let alone run. 

“So I’m lying there, and I’m thinking, ‘This could be it.’” 

Chubb is set to make his return for the first time since Week 2 of last seasonGetty

Now, over a year later, after a strenuous rehab and against all odds, Chubb will once again be running out of the tunnel in front of the Cleveland home crowd, in a city that means everything to him.

He ended his letter with a simple message to the city that embraced him and never wavered in letting him go.

“That’s enough talking for me. There’s only one thing left to do now. I gotta pay ya back.

“These rocks ain’t going to move themselves. Let’s work.”