John Rankin says he is delighted Accies defender Jamie Hamilton will be back on the pitch instead of sitting at home watching Soccer Saturday every weekend.
The New Douglas Park head coach managed to convince the 20-year-old to put pen to paper on a new deal earlier this week, following protracted talks which started towards the end of last season when Stuart Taylor was still at the helm.
However, Hamilton has missed their entire pre-season campaign and it will still be a number of weeks before he is fit enough to pull on an Accies jersey again.
And Rankin has revealed the youngster decided to extend his stay at Accies after coming to his senses, following a summer on the sidelines and having to settle for Saturdays watching Jeff Stelling on Sky Sports.
He said: "I think it is quite important that Jamie is back on the football pitch on a Saturday rather than sitting in his living room watching Jeff and the boys.
"We want to get Jamie back doing what he does best, rather than watching results on a Saturday or watching the game from the sidelines.
"I think it is important that he's in his happy place and developing. He's not doing anything sitting in the house.
"And what we can provide for him is a platform for him to play, in an environment to make him hungry to kick on.
"Doing what he was doing wasn't improving him and he realised that.
"And he was quite quick to say to us I want to come back, I want to learn and improve.
"I'm delighted to have Jamie back and he will be a big part of what we are trying to do.
"Although he is young, he is very experienced in terms of the number of games he has played so it's now a case of adding the next part on to that.
"Look at what his weaknesses are and can we improve them so he becomes the finished article."
Hamilton has over 60 career appearances under his belt so far and made 33 outings for Accies last season.
Rumours were rife that he was on his way out, with clubs down south circling and there was even reports of Celtic showing an interest.
That failed to come to fruition and by the end of last season, an offer was put on the table by Accies but they were left hanging as Stuart Taylor's protracted exit from the club was only signed off in mid-June.
Rankin has now taken the reins but the time taken to come to an agreement leaves the centre-back well behind his team-mates.
"Jamies has an uphill task fitness-wise," Rankin admitted.
"But he is working hard on that. He's not been training with the boys as such, he has been away working on his own fitness within our environment.
"It's the same with Regan Thomson [Accies' latest new signing].
"Both are needing a mini pre-season. They are a wee bit behind and we know how important pre-season is, everybody does.
"If you miss those seven or eight weeks of pre-season, it becomes hugely important to get up to speed because you can be playing catch-up for the rest of the season.
"They've both got little niggly injuries because they are trying to push themselves, but they need to realise that they can't train at the same intensity as everyone else is right now.
"But I'm sure we'll get them to the levels we need to in the coming weeks.
"They are two hugely important figures for us going forward."
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