Derby County will welcome back midfielder Bradley Johnson into their squad for their play-off encounters with Hull City in the next week. The ex-Norwich man has missed the last six games through injury but insists he is raring to go.
The 29-year-old, who achieved promotion out of the play-offs last season whilst with the Canaries, has been absent with a knee injury. The £6million signing is hoping his experience can come into good use for the final games of the season.
The hard-working midfielder resumed training late last month and has steadily been building up his fitness since then. Considering that Derby always held their play-off aspirations in their own hands for quite some time, there hasn’t been a major need to rush him back sooner than required. Nevertheless, Johnson cannot wait to get back involved in two massive play-off semi-finals,
“It’s always good to be back playing.
“I’ve been out for about five weeks and it has been hard sitting in the stands watching game after game.
“I’m itching to be back on the pitch and I’ve worked hard with the physios and fitness coaches.
“I got 45 minutes under my belt on Tuesday against Barnsley and I’m training with the lads – I hope I can play my part in the play-offs.
“If that is by coming off the bench, with the Gaffer sticking with the lads that have been playing well, then I’m happy to do that as long as I am helping the team to get to where they want to be.”
Johnson has fond memories of playing against Hull, scoring twice in their last meeting of the regulation season, where the Rams scored a 4-0 home win against the Tigers. Johnson scored twice in that game, including a fine team game, as seen in the video below.
