Sheffield United's Jayden Bogle counting his blessings as he comes back hungrier after injury

Last Saturday Bogle made his first appearance since February. Such is the nature of Championship life, seven days on he is hoping to make his third, at Stoke City.

But surgery on a knee cartilage injury was only the second life-changing moment of the then-21-year-old's season after the birth of his first child, son Zayon.

The combination of the two have made him more mature and hungrier to capitalise on his second crack playing for the best team in the Championship as they chase promotion back to the Premier League.

"When it (football)'s been literally taken away from you to the point where you can't go out and train, you can't go out and play and that's all you want to do, it makes you just want to get back at it even quicker," admits Bogle.

"I've just been even hungrier to get back out there on the pitch training with the boys and then going back into gamedays, the fans and the atmosphere. I missed that."

He knew, though, when he picked up the injury he was in for a long haul.

"I sort of felt it wouldn't be a quick process just because of how I felt the injury," he recalls. "I tried different things and it wouldn't go away. I probably didn’t expect to be what it was, but that's what was needed."

Sometimes it needs something to be taken away before you can fully appreciate it.

"When I was on the bench (against Birmingham City), just the atmosphere going out to warm-up, hearing the fans clapping, all them sort of things, you don't get to experience when you're in the stands watching so it just made me hungrier," he says.

"I guess that atmosphere in the dressing room as well. I suppose you always feel like you're on the outside looking in a little bit when you're not preparing for the game, getting ready and putting your kit on, getting your boots ready.

"There's a difference to being in there supporting the boys, a big difference.

"Even just being able to leave the house after (the operation), it was nice to be able to walk freely again because I wasn't able to do that for quite a while.

"Little things you might take for granted and then once you have an injury and you can't do them, you appreciate them much more when you can do them again."

That perspective will benefit more than just him.

Bogle's career has become intertwined with that of Max Lowe, the fellow wing-back who moved with him from Derby County in the summer of 2020.At the start of September, Lowe suffered a serious hamstring injury.

"I was gutted when I saw him go down because when you see any player go down like that, really, you know they're struggling," Bogle says of the injury sustained at Hull City. "But he showed what he can do and the qualities that he's got.

"I've played with him at previous clubs so I know the qualities he's got. He'll come back even stronger, come back hungrier, he'll come back fighting and be ready to go again."

In Zayon, Bogle has something else to be grateful for.

"That's been the biggest distraction, it's non-stop but I love every minute and it's been massive part of my recovery as well," he says.

"It's definitely matured me a lot. It's one of the proudest moments, if not the proudest moment, of my life. I wouldn't change it for anything."

Bogle is counting a lot of blessings right now.