Newcastle United teenager Lewis Miley has revealed he had no qualms about playing for the club's second string before his first-team comeback.
Having suffered a back injury last season, a nasty foot issue sustained in an off season running incident would follow and the Stanley lad ended up missing pre-season all together. However, despite being unable to follow up his first full season with a flying start to the 2024/25 campaign, Miley is now eager to make up for lost time.
Talking about his next steps, Miley said: "It's got to be to get some minutes again for the first team soon. I've just got to keep building on my fitness.
"I've got those two or three Under-21 games I've played already - so not it's just continuing to build-up my fitness and then hopefully get some minutes after that."
Reflecting on playing for the Under-21s again, Miley, speaking to United magazine, said: "It's totally different. It's still some of the lads who I played with at the academy when I was there.
"So it was good to play with them because I haven't played with them in ages. But it feels totally different now.
"It is weird because even when the manager is saying: 'It's good for the senior lads to build up their fitness', I just feel like a young lad still really! But it's good to hear."
Miley played 10 minutes of the Premier League rout at Ipswich Town and looked like a player loving life at the end of the 4-0 win at Portman Road. For Eddie Howe it is another quality star back at his disposal, he said: "Lewis is definitely physically in a much better place than he was and that's just through development of his muscles and body as he gets into that transition phase from 17 to 18, that is a big age for any young man.
"I think technically, tactically, I think he will naturally improve because he'll become more street-wise about the game but he's still got the same qualities, I've seen that in training.
"His passing range, calmness on the ball, and decision-making for such a young player really sets him apart. I'd loved to think he'd be in a really good place.
"Now of course, he'll need games to find his rhythm and that's going to be difficult to guarantee him at the moment with the strength of the midfield but certainly he's going to play a part in the short-term and the long-term future for us, he's such an important player."