Teddy Bishop would like nothing better than to start and complete every single Town game, but admits he had no problem accepting manager Paul Lambert’s decision to leave him out of the 4-1 defeat at Doncaster six days ago.
"I completely understood,” said the Cambridge-born midfielder. "He pulled me to one side last Monday and said he was going to give me a rest.
"He said I’d covered long distances in games and had completed the full 90 minutes against Accrington on the Saturday. I knew where he was coming from but I was still disappointed because I want to play in every single game, although I knew it was probably — no definitely — the right decision.”
Bishop, who has missed a great deal of football through injury, is revelling in the fact that he is fully fit again. He added: "This is all I’ve ever wanted over the last four or five years. When we went down two years ago I played a lot after Christmas, and I felt good then, but I’m feeling even better now and it’s a huge factor for me.
"I feel I could play against Gillingham tomorrow, Crewe on Saturday and again at Sunderland next Tuesday. It’s about that first 90 minutes when your body’s not fully used to it.
"When it’s used to, say, 70 minutes, you come off and you still feel okay, and you feel fresh the next couple of days.
"With the first 90 minutes you do really feel it for the next two days or so but I’ve done it twice now, against Accrington and again at Lincoln at the weekend, and I’m ready to go again tomorrow if I’m selected.”
In terms of staying fit does he do anything differently now? "I’ve always done a lot of work in the gym, not only when I was doing rehab after being out injured, and I saw a guy during lockdown who helped me a lot with posture and structure in my body,” he revealed.
"He’s targeting things in my body that I haven’t really targeted before and seeing him has been a key factor for me. I’ve seen a lot of specialists in my time and they all tell you different things. It’s about finding something that works for your body.
"I still see the new guy alongside the work I do with the physios and the strength and conditioning people, so it’s a bit of everything at the moment. The treatment I’ve had here at the club has been excellent too, so overall I’m feeling really good right now.”
The evidence so far suggests Bishop is more than capable of dealing with the physical side of his game and he is often man-marked. He sees that as a compliment, although he pointed out: "I’m not too fussed about that. I’m used to getting fouled and getting kicked about anyway, so that doesn’t bother me.
"I don’t ever think about staying down. I like to get up and get on with it. It has also been good for me to complete the entire 90 minutes in a couple of games, which shows I’m a lot fitter now than I’ve been in a very long time.”
Asked how important a season this is for him, Bishop responded: "It’s big for me for obvious reasons but it’s also big for the club because we want to get promoted back to where we should be and this year needs to be the first step in doing that.”
Bishop burst on to the first team scene more than six years ago, making his senior debut in a 1-0 Capital One Cup defeat at Crawley in August 2014 and but for horrendous luck with injuries would have probably almost doubled his current tally of 104 senior outings in all competitions, 44 of which have been as a substitute.
At 24 he’s no longer one of the younger Town players, admitting: "Sometimes I feel like a senior player when I’m out on the pitch and I have a lot of younger guys around me. We have a really talented squad with the perfect mix of experience and youth, so we should have a good year.
"I’ve never been a massive shouter out on the pitch — I like to concentrate on my own game — but I do speak to the younger lads individually if I can. I’ve definitely been more vocal this season than in the past.”