Derby County winger Tom Barkhuizen is delighted to be back fit and amongst the first-team squad following a month on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.
The 29-year-old, who joined from Preston North End in the summer, has been eased back into action during the last two games off the bench and played a vital role in the Rams' comeback win at Newport County in the Second Round of the Emirates FA Cup last weekend.
Barkhuizen sat down with RamsTV ahead of Saturday’s Sky Bet League One clash with Sheffield Wednesday at Pride Park Stadium to discuss his return to the field and preview this weekend’s clash with the Owls.
On his return to playing action…
Naturally I’ve been a little bit achy since getting back into the swing of things but mentally it’s a lot better being back involved and away from the medical room and doing the same things again and again in the gym.
It’s the most challenging thing when you’re working on your own. The lads have been doing well too so you miss being a part of that. It’s good to be back and hopefully we can keep up this good form because we’re doing alright at the moment.
On injuries…
I hate being injured. I went so long without being injured and then last year at Preston I had a few niggles. I think the older you get the more you want to play, so the more frustrating it gets when you miss matches and that’s kind of where I was at.
It’s part and parcel of the game though. I’ve just got to look after myself and maximise the amount of time I can get on the pitch.
On the current run of form…
I think we’re nine unbeaten, including the cup games. Richie Barker mentioned the other day that we’d lost three in 16 and we spoke about those losses - but we’re doing alright. Obviously we’d like to turn a couple of those draws into wins and they are probably the games that will define where we are at the end of the season.
At this point we want to try and break away from the pack, solidify ourselves as a top six team and then see what we can do. The league is really tight but if we can solidify ourselves in that top six then who knows what we can do.
Everyone is going to go through a sticky spell, so we want to stay in and around it and push on.
On Sheffield Wednesday…
I’ve had some good and horrendous games against Sheffield Wednesday in my time and I think I played my second-ever game against them. They are a team I’ve played against quite a lot, which I’m sure a lot of the experienced boys have and even the younger boys that have played a lot of games have too.
It’s going to be a tough match but we need to be at it like we are every game. We won’t treat it any differently to whether we were playing Forest Green Rovers at home or Morecambe away - we go into it wanting to win.