Since signing his first professional terms in 2013, Joe Rothwell has had to wait nine years for his first chance in the Premier League.
When he made his long-awaited arrival at Vitality Stadium in June with the promise of top flight football, you could have forgiven the midfielder for celebrating. That’s until injury struck.
The 27-year-old pulled up with a quad injury in the pre-season friendly with Bristol City and delayed his Premier League dream even further.
Nonetheless, Rothwell is now fit and he’s raring to go, having been on the bench for Saturday's draw with Fulham.
“It’s been a long three months or so, I’m just delighted to be back involved now and I just want to crack on properly and get involved in the games.”
The talented attacking midfielder is reflective when he sits down with afcb.co.uk ahead of the visit of Southampton on Wednesday, thinking about the difficulty of his first few months at the club.
He added: “It was disappointing [to pick up the injury], even to know that everything I’d done in pre-season starts from scratch again. The staff have been brilliant with me, they’ve got me through it and hopefully I can hit the ground running.
“Everyone at the club has been brilliant. The first six-to-eight weeks were tough, I didn’t feel I was getting anywhere and all of the sudden, I started to feel a lot better with myself and thankfully it’s behind me now.”
Rothwell has had a first-hand view of the club’s excellent revival under Gary O’Neil, having gone six games unbeaten in the build-up to Wednesday’s game.
He is effusive in his praise for his teammates: “I’ve been massively impressed, huge credit to the lads and the staff!
“Since Gaz has taken over, the lads have really got on board with what he wants to do and it’s reflecting on the pitch.
“You don’t go six unbeaten in the Premier League just willy-nilly, there’s a lot of hard work and dedication on the training ground and you can see it on the pitch.
“It’s nothing less than I expected when making the step up, I knew the level was going to be better and they’ve shown that.
“The training they’ve been doing has been reflected in the results, the performances have been brilliant and hopefully I can come back, add that little bit here and there and hopefully we can continue.”
Wednesday’s opponents are south coast rivals Southampton, who will arrive at Vitality Stadium determined to prove a point following a tricky start to the season.
Rothwell is under no illusions about what to expect: “It’s going to be a tough game.
“There’s never an easy game in this league and they’ll be coming here wanting to get the three points, just like we are, and we just have to approach the game with the same mindset and quality as we have for all the other games. Hopefully we can come up on top.”
