Alan Judge is progressing well in the early stages of his recovery from a broken leg sustained in the win over Ipswich Town last month and has promised to come back even better and stronger. The injury curtailed a wonderful season for the Irish midfielder which had seen him score 14 goals and contribute 11 assists in 38 appearances, form that earned him a first cap for the Republic of Ireland in March. With a long road to recovery ahead of him, Alan is taking inspiration from the return of Scott Hogan and wants to have the same positive impact when he returns as former Rochdale man has had in recent weeks.

“I have had a good month and I am progressing well at the moment,” Alan told Bees Player. “I have got a fair few months ahead of me but I am making progress. It is good for the fans to see how I am going and it gives me a bit of confidence as well. I am back walking a small bit on the Alter-G Machine and I am looking forward to each moment already. I have got to look at people like Scott Hogan and Andreas Bjelland coming back from their injuries. Scott has come back from nearly two years out and hopefully I will be coming back from about seven or eight months out. I will be looking to copy whatever Scott does. There are more bad days than there are good days with injury. I have already faced two or three weeks of them realising that I am not going to the European Championships but I like to think that I am a positive character and I will just get on with it now. I can build my legs physically from top to bottom and hopefully come back as quick as Scott because he is on fire now.”

Alan was speaking after picking up a hat-trick of awards at Brentford’s Player of the Year Awards Dinner on Sunday evening. The 27-year-old was the runaway winner of the Players’ and Supporters’ Player of the Year, and also shared the Brentford Travel Club Away Player of the Year with goalkeeper David Button. Alan said it was great to receive the recognition that he did, especially coming from his fellow players and the fans.

“It is hard to put into words what it means to be named Supporters’ Player of the Year but I really appreciate it,” said Alan.  “It is the best award that you can get alongside the Players’ Player of the Year. The supporters have liked what they have seen throughout the year and it a great thing to get. The players were telling me that I might as well not sit down as the awards were going on but you just go along with it and it was great to pick up these awards. I was really enjoying things but I was just looking forward to the next game. I play every game of football as if it is my last. I love football and that is how I play. My favourite moment of the season was my Charlton Athletic goal. Overall it was a great team performance and I was really pleased with how I played that day.”

The former Blackburn Rovers player arrived in TW8 in January 2014 and scored the decisive goal as The Bees earned promotion to the Championship at the end of his first season. He went on to make 41 appearances last season as Brentford’s first campaign back in the second tier ended in Play-Off Semi-Final disappointment before passing 100 Brentford appearances in the win over Nottingham Forest last month.

“When I came here two years ago we were fighting to come up from League One so people would have bitten your hand off for finishing fifth and ninth since then,” said Alan. “The last few weeks have made me realise that maybe the team doesn’t need me. I will have to fight to get back in but it is a challenge that I am looking forward to.”