No longer Pompey's forgotten man, Denver Hume will be targeting a place in Pompey's League One side after making his comeback from injury in the EFL Trophy draw at Crawley Town.

The recruit from Sunderland suffered a back injury in the latter part of last season and only now has he recovered sufficiently to play.

He was delighted to get back on the pitch at Crawley and told the club website: 'It has been really tough — I’m not going to lie. It’s been a very frustrating period for me. It was a back problem that was also neural and went down the leg, so that’s why it got a bit complicated.

'I’d got off to a good start after signing for the club at the back end of January and played quite a few games in quick succession. But I realised quite quickly that it was something I couldn’t rush because I wanted to avoid any further complications.

'I’ve just had to knuckle down and work really hard, staying patient and making sure I do all the training to get me to this point. It can be tough to do that — even more so when you see the team doing well because you want to be out there with them.

'But when you get older and have experience of injuries in the past, you get to know your own body and learn to do things right. Now it’s about continuing to build and progress, so I can move in the right direction. I’m in a good place.

'To get 45 minutes under my belt felt great for me and the main thing is that I felt fine afterwards as well. It will be a recovery day on Wednesday and then back to training ahead of what’s a really big game on Saturday.'

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