KUDUS Oyenuga insists his period recovering from a hamstring injury in the Morton under-20s side was time well spent — and he credits Ton’s youngsters for helping improve his game.

Oyenuga limped off against Dumbarton with a hamstring problem back in January, and has had to bide his time in rehab, both at the gym and in reserve action, before he could return to the first team fold. 

The striker, 23, is a patient pro but says he needs to stay active and playing games — no matter what level — to keep himself fresh and ‘ticking over’ so he’s always ready when called upon.

He told the Tele: "It's good, I've been getting my sharpness back in under-20's games and it's my third one now back from injury. The physio Jane [Johnstone] said I need to play some reserve games before I came back properly.

"I haven't broken down in one of them yet and I've had a couple of minutes off the bench [for the first team], so hopefully I can get myself stronger after the weekend.

"The standard is actually quite good. We have a really good team, Andy [Millen] is a good coach and has the boys drilled. He wants us to get the ball down and playing and getting at teams.

"It's good to get minutes when you're not playing. You want to keep yourself ticking over and I'm the type of person who needs that. I can't really not play for two or three weeks and still look sharp. I always need to play some sort of football continuously to keep myself ticking."

Oyenuga enjoys playing the role model for the teens at Ton, and he believes under-20's boss Andy Millen makes good use of the first team players whenever they get involved with his kids in Development League West action.

But the forward maintains his goal is still to become a regular in the starting lineup for Jim Duffy and Craig McPherson's outfit - and it helps that the first team management staff attend every development game to keep updated with their prospects at youth level.

He said: "Ideally I'd obviously rather play for the first team, but it's beneficial to play for the reserve team. Andy looks after his own group, but he loves it when the first team lads come down and show the rest of the boys a good attitude and take the game positively and seriously.

"The gaffer and Hagi [McPherson] are great as well because they go to every under-20's game. They keep everyone on their toes because they're casting their eyes on everybody.

"So you've got to maintain the standards. It's nice that the gaffer is there to watch, help and support. He tells you what you can do and then what you can do better."