While the teenager would undoubtedly like to have played more football over the course of the season, Rigg says his spells out of the side have allowed him to focus on "working on himself" and improving his game.
And on the evidence of his last two outings, that work is paying off.
Rigg was arguably Sunderland's best performer in the recent defeat to Brighton and then followed that with what was probably his best display of the season in the Tyne-Wear derby victory at St James' Park.
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But prior to those two games, Rigg had made just six Premier League starts this season.
Indeed, between the start of November and mid-December he didn't get a kick in seven successive games, and the same happened again in another seven-game sequence between mid-January and the end of February.
But Rigg put those spells to good use. And the midfielder admits he's even had to remind himself that he's still only 18 and very much ahead of schedule, even if starts have been relatively hard to come by this season.
“One hundred per cent," he says. I’ve had a lot more time to work on my game, especially this season because I haven’t been in the team, so I’ve had a lot of opportunities to work on myself and get better, and I think I’ve done that.
“I just need to keep the consistency now.”
With the likes of Bertrand Traore, Nilson Angulo, Jocelin Ta Bi and Romaine Mundle all sidelined, Rigg is likely to get more opportunities between now and the end of the season, particularly after his displays against Brighton and Newcastle.
Sunderland are about to move into the second week of a three-week stoppage, after which they welcome Tottenham, the first of seven remaining games as the Black Cats look to build on that brilliant derby win.
Regis Le Bris' side are just three points behind seventh-placed Brentford, so what can be achieved this season? Is European qualification the target?
He might be inexperienced, but Rigg wasn't tempted into moving off script.
“We’ve just got to take it game-by-game," he said.
"We’ve got our little targets as players, but obviously there are a few big games coming up, so we just need to take it game-by-game and hopefully the fans can push us like they always do."