WAYNE HENNESSEY'S hunt for first-team football has remarkably taken him up a league and the on-loan Yeovil keeper is hoping an international recall with Wales follows.
Hennessey has been through the mill for the past 12 months, two cruciate knee ligament injuries rendered him useless to Wolves as the once mighty Molineux outfit slid down to League One last term.
Carl Ikeme now dons the gloves in the Black County, but in the West Country it is the Glovers who are looking to reap the benefits of Hennessey's return to fitness.
Since joining Gary Johnson's side on an initial month's loan in August he has slowly been finding his feet in the Championship.
And after extending his stay at Huish Park for a further month the 26-year-old, a few years ago chased by Arsenal, admits his ambition is to make Wales' starting line-up for their remaining World Cup qualifiers in October.
“We have a couple of games against Macedonia and Belgium coming up, hopefully I can get called up for those,” said Hennessey.
Strange
“The gaffer (Chris Coleman) has been brilliant all the way through my injury, I'm sure everyone will say the same thing but he told me to get back playing a good number of games and that would benefit me, so I have.
“He told me to go out on loan. All I need is guaranteed games. There's me, Owain (fon Williams) and Boaz (Myhill), all three of us fighting for that one place.
“Boaz has played the last two games, but all of us are now playing and that gives the gaffer a bit of a decision to make, but it's healthy to have competition.
“It's good to be back playing games and showing people that I am back fit and capable of playing in the Championship.
“It's nice to know that I'm still wanted, it's strange that I've ended up in the Championship but it's great for myself and I can't thank Yeovil enough for having me.
“I want to pay them back for the faith they have had in me by playing well, I've been feeling good in myself.”
Hennessey did make a return, albeit briefly, to the Wales squad in August but limped off during the warm-up of their clash against the Republic of Ireland with a hamstring injury that almost cost him his move to Yeovil.
Given the problems he has faced in the past year you would expect the niggling injuries to plant a seed of doubt in his mind – not so.
“I don't even think about it now, it's gone out of my head, and that's come with these games at Yeovil,” he added.
Discuss
“It was a difficult time, but it's one of them things that you can't really help, you can't do anything about it you just have to come back bigger and stronger.
“It was my first major injury, but I like to think it's made me stronger, I'm more mature, and to be fair the second one was more of a blow but I knew what I needed to do in terms of rehab – it was just more time consuming because I wanted to give it enough time.
“It was great to be back in the Wales set-up last month because it had been about a year since I was last involved and I want to taste it again.”
As for his future at Wolves, Hennessey claims he's in no rush with two years of his contract still to go.
“Obviously January is coming up, but I haven't spoken to Kenny (Jackett, the Wolves manager) about my situation,” he continued.
“I have got two years left on my contract so there will come a time when I'm sure we will sit down and discuss it, but it hasn't happened yet.
“It's a shame I'm not playing at Wolves but I'm happy. I just want to be playing, if I went back to Wolves and I was playing I would be happy, we'll have to see what happens.”
