Hayden Carter is determined to play a part in the run-in following a frustrating spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
The 25-year-old was named on the bench against Plymouth last weekend and got some valuable minutes under his belt for the Under-21s on Tuesday afternoon.
Carter played an hour and even managed to get on the scoresheet with a towering header from a corner as the youngsters suffered a narrow defeat at Bolton Wanderers in the LFA Senior Cup quarter-final.
“It feels good,” he told The Lancashire Telegraph. “It has been a long while since I played, I think it is 17 weeks.
“It is good to be back out there and hopefully I can bring a lot to the team and help us finish the play-offs come the end of the season.
“It is a reward really for all the hard days and weeks I had, especially at the start of the injury.
“It is good to be back out there training, it was nice to be back involved on Saturday and then to get my first minutes for a while.”
Carter comes back into the mix with Rovers sitting fifth in the Championship table following back-to-back wins against West Brom and Plymouth under interim boss David Lowe.
“We have put ourselves in a great position,” he added. “Obviously, it is tough when things don't go our way and you can't help the team because of the injury.
“As soon as you are back training, you feel like you can go and play 90 minutes Saturday, Tuesday. But the people in the club know better than me, the physios and sports scientists.
“It can be frustrating but there is light at the end of the tunnel now. I can’t wait to be back out there and helping the boys.”
The centre-back joined Rovers’ Academy ranks over a decade ago and has gone on to become an important member of the first-team squad.
Some of the youngsters who played alongside Carter against Bolton have been around the first-team picture this season, including Harley O’Grady-Macken and Isaac Dunn.
“Obviously, the result wasn't what the lads wanted but to see the amount of talent we have got coming through, a lot have already been involved with the first-team,” he said.
“It is good to play with them and hopefully in the future a lot of them can break through and play week in, week out for the first-team.”
