3/1 To Win
Hopeful of being passed fit to face Fulham on Saturday, Richard Keogh says this weekend is all about how Derby County react from their defeat to Reading before the international break.
The Rams travel to the Capital looking for an immediate return to winning ways in the late Sky Bet Championship game at Craven Cottage, kick-off: 5:30pm.
Gary Rowett’s men fell to a 4-2 defeat to Reading two weeks ago – a result that ended their four-game winning streak and seven-match unbeaten run in total.
With a schedule jam-packed full of fixtures over the next couple of months, Keogh, the 30-year-old Derby captain, only has eyes on ensuring the Reading result was a merely a blip as they look to embark on another unbeaten streak.
He told RamsTV: “We’ve gone on a great run and we have earned some big results against some big teams.
“Maybe the two away games, with a lot of travelling involved, maybe, took some of the energy out of us and as a result we didn’t start as well as we have been at home.
“We’re not making excuses. We weren’t good enough. In this division, you are going to have bumps in the road, but it’s always about how you react.
“The lads have got come back refreshed, training has gone really well this week and we’re all excited to try and go on another run.
“Especially over the Christmas period we have got a lot of games, tough ones too, but it’s a great opportunity to get some points on the board and pull ourselves further up the league.”
In a big boost for the Rams ahead of the weekend, Keogh is also hopeful of retaining his place in the starting XI against Slaviša Jokanović’s Fulham after returning to training on Thursday.
The centre back, nominated for the Championship Player of the Month award for October following a string of impressive performances, was forced to withdraw from the defeat to Reading after just six minutes.
Scans have confirmed that Keogh suffered a slight tear to his quadricep.
“It’s been a long 10 or 12 days, but I managed to train on Thursday and felt good,” he said.
“I’ve been lucky really. The rehab has gone quite well, the injury has healed quite nicely, and it has been nice to get back out there training. Hopefully I will be ready for the weekend.
“It was just something I felt in my quadricep during the warm-up. At the time, I was hoping it was just some stiffness.
“I tried to play, but I realised quite quickly that I couldn’t do all of the stuff that I needed to do. It was important for me to come off because I could have done a lot more damage.
“We scanned it and realised that I had a slight tear. If I had carried on it would have got a lot worse.”
