Odubajo feels he is getting back to his best
Moses Odubajo insists he is well on the way to recapturing his best form after spending two years out with injury.
The right-back returned to Brentford this summer after a miserable time at Hull in which he dislocated his knee cap, wrecking his dream of playing in the Premier League.
Odubajo made his first league start since May 2016 in the draw at Leeds and the 25-year-old says he is just grateful for as many games as he can get this season.
“I’m still not where I want to be physically, but I’ve just got to be thankful after such a long spell out,” he said.
“I’m back playing, which is the main thing. It’s going to take time but as the days go on and I play more games I’m only going to reach where I left off.
“I was speaking to one of my friends yesterday and he was moaning about things, but then he said ‘look at this time last year, look at where you were and look where you are now. You’ve got a lot of things to be grateful for. Your back playing football, the thing you love’.
“I think this season I just want to play as many games as possible, if that’s in a spell or one-in one-out. I want to play as many times as I can to show everyone that I’m fit and I can still do what I did before.”
Odubajo lost his mother to Malaria when he was just 12 years’ old and Brentford will be raising money for the charity Malaria No More UK, for which Odubajo is an ambassador, at their game with Bristol City this weekend.
And the player believes the lessons he learned during that difficult time helped him through his long spell on the sidelines.
“It’s bad to say but I feel like it’s been a blessing in disguise,”he said.
“When footballers get hit with long-term injuries, it can cause depression. Football becomes your life, so when somebody takes that one thing away from you it’s like, ‘what do I do now’?
“When I was put in that situation it was a kick in the teeth, but then I thought there were more strings to my bow, and this isn’t the end, and there’s going to be a big comeback.”
