Jayson Molumby on his return at Man City after 15 months out

But the Irish midfielder can rest assured his efforts have been noticed at the club’s Lancing complex – despite 15 months out of action.

Molumby was told he was on the warm weather training camp this week amid a whirlwind weekend.

He made his comeback with 45 minutes in the under-23s’ impressive win at Manchester City on Friday night.

Then he was named among the seven subs for the 2-1 FA Cup success over Derby County.

It was after that game that midfielder Dale Stephens told The Argus he had seen Molumby working his way back to fitness and was rooting for him.

The return to action was a long time coming for Molumby who, back in August, joked he had received a new kneecap for his 19th birthday.

But suddenly last Friday it was all systems go.

He said: “I got 45 minutes against Manchester City and then found out I’d be travelling with the first team group to their training camp this week as well.

“Then I got told to be in the changing room at 10.45am the next morning, because I’d be involved in some capacity – but I still didn’t know whether I’d be on the bench.

“The manager did his pre-match meeting and I found out I was amongst the substitutes, I was buzzing.

“It was a bit of a crazy blur – warming up in front of over 20,000 people, but those are the things I’d been missing during my time out, so it was great.”

There have been a few younger faces amid the travelling Albion party at recent fixtures.

Max Sanders missed out against Derby due to injury but Viktor Gyokeres, Aaron Connolly, Ben White, Robert Sanchez and Leo Ostigard have all been spotted on away trips.

Molumby made his senior debut 18 months ago now, in the Carabao Cup, and has seen others come through during his injury troubles.

He said: “I’m one of a number of players who’ve been involved in the first team set up this year and we’ve had a lot of the lads step up from the under-18s into our group as well.

“It’s all about developing players and bringing them up through the ranks, so it speaks volumes about the progress of the academy as a whole.

“Saturday showed the path is there – we had me, Leo and Viktor on the bench and Viktor got on, so it proves what this club’s about.

“It was great to be back involved with the (under-23s) side last Friday against Manchester City.

“I was out for about 14 or 15 months so to get back out on the pitch was unbelievable.

“The physios almost acted like psychologists here to be honest and they were fantastic for me.

“The coaches and team-mates were brilliant too and everyone believed that I’d get back out on the field.

“It was hard but worth it in the end.

“The game last week was a really big win for us which leaves us just a point off the top of the table.

“We just need to keep building on what we’ve achieved so far and see what we can do between now and the end of the season.”

Albion could name a decent team from the under-23s they have sent out on loan – and still have players left over for the bench.

Development boss Simon Rusk believes the outgoing loans of last month are all about giving an opportunity – both to the players going out and those stepping up to replace them.

The win at the Etihad academy ground underlined the fact Albion have not really missed a beat since seeing key men such as White, Ben Barclay, George Cox, Anders Dreyer and Hugo Keto move on temporarily.

Connolly will be going too, on loan to Luton once he has proved his recovery from injury.

With five games to go, Albion are second and only four points behind Everton.

That is a staggering effort in their first season in the top tier.

Molumby said: “The group have really taken the step up in division in their stride.

“Little things like adding Liam Rosenior to the coaching staff has been a really good move. He’s got so much experience that he can pass on and give to us, the whole coaching team have got it spot on.

“Our initial aim was to just stay in the division but now we believe we can win the league. The aim has changed for sure. Hopefully we can stay up there be competitive come the end of the campaign.”