You look at the trajectory of Cian Ashford's fledgling career for both Wales and Cardiff City and there is a steep, but steady, upwards curve.
Anyone who has been around Cardiff City Football Club over the last five or six years will have heard this 19-year-old's name mentioned frequently. And for good reason, too, he has scored a laughable amount of goals in junior football and looked set to be the next young talent to break through into the senior ranks.
Indeed, that is what those at the Bluebirds' Vale of Glamorgan training base thought a year ago, too, with Ashford, then 18, being included in first-team training with a view to blooding him in the first team. However, it was during one of those training sessions when disaster struck and he tore his meniscus in his knee. It meant a huge injury setback at a crucial juncture in his development. A nightmare moment for any budding young footballer on the cusp of a breakthrough.
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"In September (last year), I was training with the first team, I did my meniscus, that was a frustrating time," he recalls. "I was training with the first team so I was obviously buzzing, but to do my knee, I was really gutted. Then we found out it was going to be six months and that was my season basically over. I was gutted. I thought that season could have been my season to push on, like this season, but it just wasn't meant to be.
"So, coming back this season, I knew I had a big season ahead of me. Those six months, having to wrap my head around things and mature, that really helped me."
Last season he was meant to explode on to the scene, much like the likes Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies had done the year or two previously. Instead, it was half a year of rehab, surrounded by his own thoughts and frustrations. But he credits his close-knit group around him with flipping that mindset, allowing him to embrace the hunger to get back on to the pitch and enjoy the barnstorming start he has to this season.
"I had very good people around me and helping me out," he adds. "I was trying not to think of the negatives. I was thinking about being off the pitch for six months, they were putting it in my head that it was six months to come back stronger and come back fitter and hungrier.
"Six months without football, I realised how big it was in my life. So, coming back from those six months off really made me have a drive. When I came back on to the pitch then I was prepared for everything.
"I needed this start to the season. Especially after missing all those months. I missed scoring goals and having fun on the pitch."
Well, he's certainly made up for it. This season he has been a mainstay in Darren Purse's under-21s and has registered three goals — predominantly from the left wing — in his eight appearances. His form earned him a call-up to the Wales under-21s squad and, also, Erol Bulut handing him his first-team debut at Cardiff.
Ashford has three Carabao Cup appearances to his name already and Bulut himself has been impressed with what he's seen, calling him a "quick, skilful and strong winger" with the capability to step up to the first-team fray when the time arrives. Those comments didn't escape Ashford's gaze, either.
"I seen that!" he says. "It gave me even more confidence that he is seeing my qualities. The fact he has come out and said that is really positive and has helped me.
"The season has been going good. I'm just playing my football and I've had three appearances for the first team, so I'm being integrated into the first team, so that's been good.
"I definitely think this season I have matured. Missing basically all of last season, I knew I needed to come back and make a good impression on the new manager. I knew I had to have a good season this season and I have had a really good start to the season."
Ashford is currently on camp with Wales under-21s, looking to build on the two caps he already has, playing up an age group. He will be surrounded by familiar faces, too, with Eli King and Rubin Colwill also included in Matty Jones' squad for the double header against Iceland at Rodney Parade on Thursday night and Denmark, also in Newport, on Monday in their U21 Euros qualifier.
Colwill's last couple of years is almost exactly what Ashford wants to emulate. Impress at youth level, take your chance at senior level, step up to the national team and go to a major tournament. Ashford admits it's positive to have such a good role model with him both at Cardiff and on Wales camp.
"Seeing what he has accomplished, going to the World Cup, how he came through at Cardiff, he is a good example for people coming through the ranks at Cardiff and Wales," Ashford says.
"He is a good role model to look up to. How quickly he went from under-21s to everything he has achieved. He is really good with me. I tend to speak with him a lot around camps and have a laugh and a joke, he couldn't be more welcoming."
Ashford's name shot into the headlines last month when his stunning volley out in the Czech Republic, in the 96th minute of the match, earned Wales under-21s a last-gasp draw. The technique was perfect, but nothing less than you would expect if you have followed his short career to date, and it puts Wales in second place in their group now, with two home games ahead this week.
"I think about it every now and again, how unbelievable that moment was," he says of that sublime strike. "We were trailing 1-0, it's a big game, if we could get a point out of that it would be massive coming into these home games, so seeing that ball going into the net, it was a special feeling I don't think I've ever had.
"It was a really good moment for the team. When I look back at the photos or celebrations, it makes me laugh seeing people's faces and how nuts they are all going!"
The task doesn't get any easier in this camp, though. Iceland are two wins from two and top the group, while Denmark are a top side and sit level on points with second-placed Wales as things stand. Ashford feels confident heading into the ties, though.
"We know these are going to be difficult games," he says, "but we have got that togetherness in the group to keep driving those standards and keep getting results out of these tough games. I think we are confident and there is a good vibe around the group. Hopefully we can put that out on the pitch."
