Abu Kanu’s return to action for Swindon Town under-18s has displayed the hard work of everyone, according to Sean Wood.

In September last year, Kanu ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament, causing him to miss almost all of last season.

After ten months recovering from the injury, Kanu returned to the under-18s and has been working his way back to fitness.

Wood said: “With Abu it is brilliant [to see him back], Sam Grose and Ryan Hankins have worked extremely hard to get him back and so has Abu.

“Ten months he was out for in total from the day he did his injury to the day he returned and for the last two months he has been on the pitch but it has been a very slow, progressive return to games.

“He is now like an extended schoolboy to give him an opportunity to finish off his return to play as there was a duty of care for the club and we all think this was the best thing for a boy who scored 39 goals in his first year as a scholar.

“We are going to take things slowly and build up his game time over the next few weeks and see where he can get to.

“I think it shows how hard our staff work, it has been about Abu’s application, his desire, his hard work to do the rehab he has to do day in, day out for ten months and build up to where he was, the first part of that is very little physical exercise.

“It has been a testament to the hard work of everyone off the pitch to make sure he is mentally prepared, he is doing things right off the pitch, he knows his gym programme, making sure he is ok and checking in on him through tough times, especially in the early days.”

Kanu eventually made his return to action against Cambridge United and has managed to impress in game since for the academy.

Wood said: “When you see him return against Cambridge and in 15 minutes he comes on and reminds you of everything he did in his first year.

“He came on and won a penalty, unfortunately, he missed the penalty but then went and scored and was a nuisance for Botan’s [Ameen] goal.

“All of that hard work that everybody has put in, player and staff, that is where you can really see the rewards of it.”