Rowett Says “George Thorne Now Ready For Contention For A Starting Position”
George Thorne is ready to push for a return to the Derby County starting line-up, says manager Gary Rowett.
He has been steadily building up his match fitness since returning from his long lay-off - and is now firmly back in contention.
"George has worked incredibly hard," said Rowett. "Up until two or three weeks ago, we just felt he wasn't quite ready, because he hadn't played enough games.
"He had that game for the under-23s when he only lasted five minutes because of illness and that just stopped him getting that momentum.
"But he's worked incredibly hard with the sports science and medical team over the past two or three weeks - and I think he's in good shape now.
"I think he's now in a position where he could really challenge."
Thorne replaced Vydra against Forest as Rowett looked to protect his team's two-goal lead.
He made up a central midfield three along with Joe Ledley and Tom Huddlestone.
"It was good to have him out there," Rowett added.
"I felt at that point, it was a gamble putting an extra midfielder on but I just felt we needed a little bit more control.
"We didn't want to take away from our attacking threat but the forwards had worked so hard."
Good to see George Thorne come back into the equation against Forest and get some first team action under his belt and hopefully this is now the start of a revival for Thorne and he stays fit and get’s stronger with each game he plays in and becomes a huge asset for us going forward into the next few games.
Welcome back Thorne.....
