John Eustace has highlighted ‘magnificent gesture’ made by Sondre Langas after he played through the pain barrier to help Derby County secure their third win in a week.
The Norwegian, who only joined the Rams in the January transfer window, played both injured and out of position to help his new team snatch a 3-2 victory away to relegation rivals Plymouth Argyle.
The 24-year-old, a recent arrival from Viking, missed the midweek win over Coventry City after coming off with what looked like a hamstring injury against Blackburn Rovers last weekend.
Langas was one of ten players with injury worries going into the game at Home Park, which became 11 when Ryan Nyambe picked up a knock in the warm-up. That meant that when Kane Wilson was brought off with a quarter of an hour remaining, there was only Langas left standing.
Eustace paid a warm tribute: “That [togetherness] is the only way you get any success at any football club,” he told Rams TV.
“Sonny could have quite easily gone in and had surgery on his knee earlier in the week, but he hasn’t he’s going to go through the barrier for the boys and for the club, which is a magnificent gesture from him and he was needed.
“You could see that going on at the right wing back, he didn’t really know what was going on there, but he was excited about going on and I thought the way he performed was excellent.”
Eustace said that is a sign of the unity that currently exists at Pride Park. “It’s about the squad. Anything to do with football, it’s about the group of players that you’re working with. It’s not about any individual. It’s not about 11 players on the pitch. It’s about the 22 players that are available and today you know we’ve proved that whoever will be playing will sweat blood for the club and give their all.”
