Shropshire Star

Josh Vela came back from injury early in desperation to help Shrewsbury Town

Debutant Josh Vela revealed he returned from injury early to make his eagerly-anticipated Shrewsbury Town bow.

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Midfielder Vela caught the eye as Sam Ricketts' men ended their barren run of League One wins by beating Doncaster 1-0 thanks to a late Dave Edwards header.

A quad injury, the severity of which was detected on a scan after his move, had kept the former Bolton star, signed from Hibernian last month, from making his first Shrewsbury appearance.

But Vela was desperate to be involved. He said: "It was nice just to be back on the pitch really after being out for so long. Obviously we needed a win and put in a good performance to get it.

"I had a thigh injury but we didn't know how bad it was when I first came. We got it scanned and it was quite a bad one.

"But I was eager to come back. Really I shouldn't start for another three or four weeks but I got it strengthened up and I wanted to play to help the team out so I came back early and it feels alright.

"Definitely it's a bonus, I just wanted to get a win and start moving us up the table. I could've gone all the way (90 minutes) but didn't want to risk it, we've got another big game on Tuesday."

Vela, 26, added: "It's not the best of pitches at the minute, it was just a scrap, but that's what it's all about, scrapping to help the team out."

Ricketts insisted that Town had only 'scratched the surface' of what Vela can bring to the side.