It has been a very good week for Bristol Rovers and their manager Joey Barton, and it has only improved by Josh Grant's long-awaited return to training after double knee surgery.
Knee problems have plagued Grant throughout his near-three-year stint at the Mem, but after a single substitute appearance early in August, he had an operation on both of his knees to address an issue with tendinitis which the Gas believe will remedy the problem for good.
Grant returned to individual outdoor training in early March and he was back amongst his teammates at The Quarters on Thursday.
The former Chelsea prospect's recovery has gone to plan and the utility player, who has impressed in defence and midfield for Rovers under Barton – particularly as a wing-back in last year's League Two promotion campaign – is knocking on the door of a return to action with seven games remaining in the season.
"Josh Grant was back with the group today for the first time and everybody is delighted to see Josh because he gives us another bit of quality," Barton said. "People are fit and knocked in now and everybody is looking forward to this busy period.
When asked if Grant could feature before the end of this season, Barton replied. "If he keeps progressing, why not? The games come at us thick and fast and getting Josh back will be like a new signing.
"From our perspective, it’s so pleasing to see him out there, but also he’s feeling really good, so long may that continue."
Grant joined the Gas as a free agent in 2020 after a loan spell with Plymouth Argyle. He has scored four times in 64 appearances and played his best football as a Rovers player under Barton last season, which was limited to 22 league appearances due to his bad luck with injuries.
Managers may lose patience with some players in such a situation, but Barton believes Grant has enormous value to Rovers and he rated the 24-year-old as his "favourite player" in his squad last season due to his intelligence and ability to learn tactical concepts quickly, coupled with his versatility.
Grant is coming to the end of his initial three-year contract at Rovers, but throughout the player's time on the sidelines, Barton has made it clear he is part of his plans moving forward and talks have taken place between the parties with a view to signing a new deal.
Barton also revealed that contract negotiations will begin with other players in his squad after the back-to-back wins over Charlton Athletic and Fleetwood Town over the Easter weekend all but confirmed Rovers' League One status for next season.
"We spoke about getting the operation," Barton said of Grant's situation. "From the club’s perspective, it’s a significant chunk of change to help Josh get the operation. We said ‘Look, however long it takes, we’ll be with you on that’.
"We haven’t quite finalised it or got a signature on the contract, but there are a few of our boys where I didn’t want anybody getting their focus mixed up with a contract negotiation and all of a sudden your focus is not on your day to day and where it should be.
"The focus was to get to our threshold and we’re still not there yet. We want to get to that 52-point mark. At 51 points now, it’s sensible that we open negotiations with five or six of our players.
"Some lads are in-contract who will want to extend, others are out-of-contract who we want to keep with us for the next stage of our build, which is, hopefully, barring a disaster, in League One next season.
"We’ve got to learn to run, but only after we learn to walk and this year was a huge learning curve. We’ve got to keep adding to the group and pushing the standard if we want to be a promotion-thinking team in the near future."
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