Giant centre-back Terell Thomas is relieved to have the opportunity to fight his way back into Neal Ardley’s plans soon, having feared he would miss his debut season with Wimbledon.
Terell, who joined the Dons for an undisclosed fee during the summer from champions Wigan Athletic, injured his right knee in the closing stages of the Checkatrade Trophy game against Charlton Athletic.
“It’s going better than I thought originally,” said Terell. “Before I got the scan, I thought I could be out for a while. When we got the results back, it wasn’t as bad as the medical team thought it could have been. That’s good news and we’re looking at a couple of weeks.
“It happened in the last two minutes. I went to block a cross and my foot got stuck and my body weight has gone all the way through my knee. The good thing is it’s not as bad as first feared.
“I’ll need some game time, before getting back into first-team contention. When I’m ready, it’s definitely in the pipeline for me to get some development games, just to play and get back to match fitness.
“Even though you train and you do hard runs in training, it’s not the same as getting that match sharpness so that your brain is switched on with everything.”
Terell started his professional career with Charlton, but ironically it was his first senior game at The Valley as he stepped out for his competitive bow in Wimbledon colours.
“It was good to finally get out at The Valley, but it felt good to be in a Wimbledon shirt,” added Terell. “I feel at home here. The fans are great and everyone around the training ground is fine with me, so now it’s about focusing on getting back strong and playing again.”
Having spent time around Neal Ardley’s new-look squad, Terell is backing his team mates to find their feet in League One, as Wimbledon have shown encouraging signs so far this season.
“That’s what’s good about our squad,” said Terell.”It’s a challenging squad between everyone. No one is always in the team as everyone is fighting for their position. Everyone trains that extra bit.
“All the strikers – James Hanson, Joe Pigott and Kwesi Appiah – work well together. ‘Pigs’ and ‘Hans’ are two big men up top that defenders, me included, don’t like playing against! They try and hold the ball up and flick it on. Kwesi is a different type of forward, as he’s looking to get in behind, get the ball to feet and do some trickery. He’s sharp, his finishing is good – all of our strikers are good quality.
“All of us know that we are good players. It’s about biding your time. We all have trust in each other and know it’s about the team. Obviously you all want to play, but it’s about the team first, getting the three points and the manager knows what’s best for the side and how strong we need to be.”
Terell was talking during a live chat for our official Facebook page before the game against Scunthorpe. Look out for regular pre-match updates on Facebook before our forthcoming games.