CHRIS LAKEY Andrew Cave-Brown could be forgiven for thinking it's Groundhog Day as he waits for the opportunity to make his league debut for the Canaries.

CHRIS LAKEY

Andrew Cave-Brown could be forgiven for thinking it's Groundhog Day as he waits for the opportunity to make his league debut for the Canaries.

The defender was given his first senior start in the League Cup tie at Torquay last August, only to be struck down by an ankle ligament injury after just 27 minutes.

It was a season he'd started full of hope, having spent the summer as skipper of the Scotland Under-19s side which reached the final of the European Under-19 championship.

This summer the World Under-20 Championships in Canada are on his radar - a trans-Atlantic journey he hopes will, once again, prepare him for another crack at the Norwich City first team, injuries permitting.

“I think it helped me at the beginning of last pre-season,” said the 18-year-old. “I was away and came back and had played five games at a high level against top European teams and I think that helped me when I came back here, I'd played more games than anyone else had and that put me in good stead fro the beginning of the season - but obviously it didn't turn out that great.

“I was involved in the team that got through to the European Cup final last year, putting out France, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Portugal. In the summer we have Nigeria, Costa Rica and Japan and if you get through you are playing the likes of Brazil and Argentina, so you are putting yourself up against the best kids in the world.”

Ironically, it's injuries which could give him his league debut at Burnley tonight, with Jurgen Colin absent and Andy Hughes more than likely to be needed in a midfield which has lost senior players to the treatment room.

Cave-Brown knows what it's like.

“I was pretty distraught, but it happens, you have just got to deal with it and carry on,” he said. “I have been waiting for my opportunity and if it comes along I hope I can impress the manager and show him what I can do. Obviously I have got to wait for that chance and see what happens.”

It would round off a pretty decent fortnight for the Gravesend-born right-back, who recently signed a one-year contract and was an unused sub at Leicester on Saturday - one step away from his target.

“At the beginning of the season it was to try and get involved in the first team,” he said. “I did that at the beginning but then after my injury it was just trying to get back in the first team and at the moment I am doing that. A few injuries have helped, but that's what you need sometimes to get your chance.

“I suppose it is the best way to end the season. After the injury I could have just seen out the season, but a few injuries to the first team have helped my cause.”

Seeing fellow teenager Chris Martin prosper has helped keep up the morale for a player who spent two months on loan to King's Lynn over the winter.

“All the young lads say if you get your chance you can go in there and do I,” said Cave-Brown. “Everyone has proved it, Micahel (Spillane) went in the other day and did really well. Chris has done really well and when Robert Eagle has played he has done really well.

“So it is not that no one has the ability, it is if you get the chance you can show what you can do and I think everyone is good enough, especially the young players at this club - they were good enough to go in and do a decent job, as they have shown.”