Gary Rowett says Craig Forsyth should be applauded for his attitude and desire after forcing himself back into the Derby County side.
The 28-year-old Scotland international left-back missed much of the last two seasons with two separate long-term knee injuries.
He started the early weeks of the current campaign in Derby’s backline but Rowett made the decision to take him out of the firing line for a period in mid-August.
After such a long spell out of action, Rowett was keen to help Forsyth through the process of returning to, and playing, competitive action on a regular basis.
The left-back’s response not to mope or sulk, but instead to ask to play for Derby’s Under-23s to improve his match fitness and ensure when he was called upon again, and proved was ready to grasp the opportunity.
He has started Derby’s last seven Sky Bet Championship games and impressed heavily in the East Midlands derby win over Nottingham Forest as well as in the away victories at Norwich City and Leeds United as the Rams finished October with unblemished record.
Speaking to RamsTV, Rowett said: “Craig should be commended for the long battle he had with injury, which I’ve faced myself and even if you have 20 members of staff around you every day, it’s a lonely battle.
“There are times when you wonder if you’re ever going to get back playing games again, so for Fozzy to do that and to come back in such good shape and with such professionalism, he deserved to start the season.
“He came to see me after he was left out of the Preston game and he told me that he needs to play games, he asked to play in every Under-23s game, he’s done a lot of extra work and we’re starting to see the benefit of that.
“I think we’ve got to be fair to him, it’s going to take longer for him to get to 100 per cent match fitness, but we’ve been really pleased with his attitude and his performances have backed up the fact that we know he’s a very good player.”
Another player that has recently returned from a lengthy lay-off is George Thorne.
The midfielder broke his leg on the final day of the 2015/16 season and missed all of last term as a result.
He worked throughout the summer to make sure he was up to speed when pre-season started at the end of June.
However, he made his comeback in the Carabao Cup at Barnsley in September and also came off the bench to help Rowett’s side to all four wins during October.
The Derby boss admits that Thorne still needs to get more game-time under his belt after missing a big chunk of pre-season, following a minor setback, but he is pleased with his progress.
Rowett said: “His season so far has been far more sporadic than Craig’s. He came back in pre-season, got injured after about three days, then he was out for another five or six weeks, so he missed virtually all of pre-season.
“He hasn’t had those games to build up, he’s going to be rusty and we know that, but George recognises that. He’s worked incredibly hard with some of the support staff and he’s starting to look a lot better physically and a lot sharper.”
He added: “I still believe that he needs to play in the Under-23s, you need games and you should be craving them.
“We know what a good player he is and we want to see him at his very best, but until he gets an opportunity in the team, we probably won’t see that.”