JUST GLAD TO SEE THE BACK OF THAT

FOR SIX long months, Andrew Omobamidele was stuck in Groundhog Day.

- MARK MCCADDEN

Wake up, throw on a back brace, head to Norwich City's training ground for a massage, head home again and then off with the brace before bedtime.

Every day he watched as his team-mates got booted up and headed to the pitch.

"It's not like a normal injury that you have to do rehab on," he said of the stress fracture in his back that stalled his progress with club and country.

Prior to the December 2021 injury he had burst on the Premier League stage and picked up five senior Ireland caps. All this six months before he turned 20.

He revealed: "My back just completely shut down and that's why I had the back brace. I'd get up in the morning, go in and go home.