Newcastle United loanee Lucas de Bolle insists he is focused on playing as often as he can for Hamilton Accies after three months of injury hell.
The midfielder arrived at New Douglas Park on September 1 on a season-long deal but concussion issues suffered during his time with the Magpies, which had already held up his switch to South Lanarkshire, resurfaced just three weeks into his loan move.
During the last few months, the Scotland under-21 international has been itching to add to his debut appearance in a 2-0 defeat to Queen's Park on September 17, but he suffered from blurred vision and had to see a specialist in London before getting the all clear to finally rejoin the Accies squad during midweek.
It has been a frustrating period for all parties, including the Accies fans who could see in his cameo from the bench against the Spiders that de Bolle has plenty to offer.
That belief was further enforced on Saturday when he helped inspire Accies to a comfortable win over Inverness in the SPFL Trust Trophy fourth round, playing a crucial role in the build-up to Sam Nixon's own goal after three minutes, which was followed by Reegan Mimnaugh's clincher 30 minutes later.
And now de Bolle has that first start and a solid 71 minutes under his belt on Saturday, he is intent on looking forward, rather than dwelling on his injury woes.
Asked how this period had been for him, he said: "It's been a very frustrating two months for me. It's been a while since I started a game and a while since I played more than 60 minutes so it was great to do it out there.
"It's just been one of those things. An injury is an injury. It takes time. I'm young so we were being patient with it.
"I was the most frustrated about it, but it's one of those things. In football you get injuries and I was patient with it so it's great to be back out on the pitch getting minutes.
"It was more minutes than I thought I was going to get but I'm delighted to get through it.
"It was fairly cold out there but it was great.
"I've been injured for a while so I'm focused on Hamilton but once I'm getting regular minutes, hopefully I can lift my performances and help the team.
"Newcastle want me to gain experience playing in the Scottish Championship, which is a good level of competitive football.
"You learn a lot more at this level than playing under-21s football, so I'm just looking to get as many minutes as possible now and kick on for the second half of the season."
His inclusion from the start was a surprise to many and asked if he was expecting it, he added: "Yes and no. I was hoping to start and get as many minutes as possible.
"I trained this week, did lots of running over the past few weeks as well, so fitness-wise I felt ready, but nothing compares to match minutes so it was good to start."
Meanwhile, the 20-year-old insists he is surrounded by so many teenage team-mates in the squad that he feels like one of the veterans in the squad.
Starring alongside de Bolle were 16-year-old Ryan One and Gabe Forsyth, as well as 17-year-old Chrissy McGinn and 19-year-old Fergus Owens.
"I'm 20 years old so I'm still quite young but I feel quite old in this team," de Bolle smiled.
"The young lads are great, especially the ones who started and came on today.
"They will be in the mix for the Championship [games] as well now and it's a great experience for them.
"First team football is so different to under-21s, under-18s football, so it's great for them."
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