McCarthy and Nolan so happy to see the skipper back where he belongs

The skipper returned from more than 10 months out when he came on as a late substitute in Tuesday’s EFL Trophy win over Shrewsbury Town.

"Guths has been involved in the last couple of matchday squads but we always earmarked this game for him to get himself back on the pitch,” said Nolan. "Sometimes it's not about what's going on with the injury or the body, you've just lost that confidence in yourself and it's all between the ears when you come back from an injury like that.

"We've gradually got him back involved, he's been around the lads for a few weeks, and you could see when he came on, he made a fantastic block. Once you go back out there, everything else goes away and all you think about is the game.

"Hopefully he enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed seeing him back out there and all the fans gave him a fantastic reception and I think you will see a lot more of Guths between now and the end of the season and certainly before Christmas."

Fellow centre-back McCarthy, who was Tuesday’s match-winner after smartly flicking home Lee Burge’s free-kick 12 minutes from time, can speak from past experience when it comes to ACL injuries.

“I really want to say a big congratulations to Jon because he’s had 10 long, hard months out,” he said. “I've been there myself in terms of coming back from an ACL injury so I know it’s not easy, but it’s so good to see him back and hopefully he can stay fit for the rest of the season.

I’ve found out more and more about Jon in my time here and the ovation he got says a lot about what he’s done for this club. I hope we can share the pitch many more times over the next few months.”

McCarthy has used his own experience to help Guthrie, adding: “We’ve spoken quite a bit because he was nearing the end of his rehab when I came to the club and for me that was almost the most difficult part of it.

"You just want to be ready to play again and be back out there with the lads but I said to him you just have to be patient, it doesn’t happen overnight, and you can’t go straight back to the player you were after a 10-month injury. It definitely takes six, seven, eight games to get back into the swing of things but once that happens, the sky is the limit.”