‘The sky’s the limit’ for Jovon Makama as the Norwich City forward works towards full fitness, with confidence that he can carry on his upward trajectory from last season.
Makama returned to action in City’s goalless friendly draw against Colchester United on Saturday. It was his first appearance since an impressive debut campaign at Carrow Road was cut short by a foot injury in February.
Few anticipated the 22-year-old would have such a profound impact at Norwich after his switch from Lincoln, but the striker recorded 10 goals and stepped up impressively as a number nine following Josh Sargent's controversial situation that led to his big-money exit to Toronto.
A broken metatarsal sustained against Blackburn brought Makama’s season to a premature end, also ruling him out of England Under-21 contention. But Jacob Wright believes there is significantly more to come, with City’s squad continuing to push the striker to reach higher levels.
"Jov's an excellent player and he gives us something different in that forward line, with his physicality and his directness that we can play with," Wright said.
"He missed a couple of chances today, but that comes with fitness and sharpness. The boss is on him, and all the boys are on him to make sure that he's back to the level he was at before the injury.
"The sky's the limit with Jov. It's about the mindset and him pushing himself and staying humble and continuing to work at the level he's working at at the minute. Because once the goals are going in, it's important he keeps pushing himself and the boys around him will keep pushing him.
"If he keeps scoring the goals that he's scoring and contributing how he's contributing, then the sky's the limit for Jov."
Norwich are hopeful the strong culture forged in the dressing room during last season’s resurgence under Philippe Clement can carry into the new Championship campaign. The decision to limit transfer activity this summer reflects a desire to maintain that continuity.
"We've got a really good group here, and when many of the faces are staying the same, it's easy to come back in, and you instantly feel comfortable and back with almost your second family," the young midfielder said.
"I think that's one of the big points of where we turned it around last year, was because the team spirit and the changing room is such a good changing room.
"Everyone looks out for each other, everyone gets on with each other and everyone's pushing each other to be better all the time."
