Anthony Wordsworth has reflected on a horrendous spell of inactivity after joining Town from Colchester in January last year.
Wordsworth, sidelined when he cracked three vertebrae on his full debut last season and having suffered minor niggles and bouts of illness this term, is now fully fit and desperate to show he has what it takes to be a regular in the Championship.
He said: "I know I can play at this level. I just needed an opportunity to be put in and for someone to believe in me — but that hasn’t happened. Hopefully I have shown the manager that I can play at this level and he’ll put me in from here on in.
"It feels like a fresh start to be honest. I feel like I’ve just turned up. The last 13 months have been a nightmare really. With injuries and not being involved it has been a bad time for me but hopefully things can change.
"It was a hard time. I lost my fitness and when I did get back the manager put me straight back in, which was nice of him. I scored against Hull (pictured above) and thought I’d done all right.
"But after that I didn’t really get a look-in, which I found difficult. I’ve worked hard and I’ve not moaned. I’ve just got my head down and tried to prove him wrong.
"I say I’ve tried to prove him wrong but I do think he thinks I’m a good player, for whatever reason. But he’s obviously been loyal to the players who have been there from the start for him, so I’ve got to try to kick down his door.”
Wordsworth says he is versatile enough to play as an orthodox midfielder or in a more advanced role, supporting the front men, the position in which the on-loan Jonny Williams is currently cast.
He added: "I’m a central midfielder so I’d like to play in central midfield. The position where Jonny has been playing is where I played for my previous club and I thought I did really well there.
"I scored a lot of goals from that position but it’s going to be hard to move Jonny out of there at the minute because he’s on fire. At this moment in time I’m just grateful to be in the team.”
Wordsworth has also nominated himself to take freekicks, a role that tends to be down to players like Stephen Hunt and Aaron Cresswell at the moment, and would love to add his first goal of the season before the current campaign expires.
He added: "If I can chip in and get a couple it would be nice. For whatever reason the midfielders haven’t been scoring goals but they’re on fire in training so maybe the goals will come from them at some point.
"I’d like to take freekicks but that’s going to be difficult as well because there is good quality in the team. But if one comes along I’ll certainly be trying to take it.”
Wordsworth was told that he was still popular among Town supporters, a number of whom have made it known that he would be in their starting line-up.
He said: "I don’t know much about that but it’s nice to hear if that’s the case. Maybe in the games against Brighton and Derby I showed them a little bit of what I’m about but I’d like more game time to show what I can do. I’ll keep fighting and trying to prove the manager wrong.”