The 20-year-old forward has only been seen by supporters of Caley Jags in fleeting glimpses, injuries having curtailed his chance to contribute more on the pitch.

Given his luck, it is perhaps ironic that Odhiambo has made only 13 appearances for Caley Thistle so far, but having fully recovered from a broken foot he is hopeful of adding significantly to this tally before the season finishes.

"I don't know if the fans have really seen anything of me yet," he stated. "Since I've been here I feel like I haven't done that much at all.

"I think the longest run of games I've had was four and even though I came here at the start of the year, I don't think I was ever able to get into my stride.

"Hopefully, the injuries are behind me now and I can get playing and show the supporters what I've got."

Arriving at the end of January as one of a number of new faces brought in by manager Terry Butcher, Odhiambo wasted little time in making an impact as he scored in a 1-1 draw against Dundee United at Tannadice.

It was not long, however, before a persistent knee problem would limit his involvement as Caley Thistle bowed out of the Scottish Premier League.

Despite his lack of time on the pitch, Butcher was impressed enough to keep the player in the Highland Capital, but it was not long before his bad luck struck again, this time a broken metatarsal during the summer resulting in a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

"I think we were only 10 days into pre-season and it might actually have been the day before our first pre-season game that it happened," he added.

"I had done all the hard work in terms of the running, but then with the first game around the corner I go and break my foot." Hobbling about on crutches and with his foot in plaster, Odhiambo waited patiently for the injury to heal before beginning his rehabilitation.

Having never been injured before, three months of not being involved with the first-team was difficult enough, but with the help of words of encouragement from Butcher and his team-mates, the former Leicester City player made it back to full fitness, although he concedes there were setbacks along the way.

"It felt like I wasn't getting any closer to playing again," he said. "It's at times like this that it's easy to feel you've been forgotten about.

"It's torture when you can't train normally with the rest of the boys and because I've never had a run of injuries like this before then I didn't have any previous experiences to fall back on or learn from.

"It's been very hard because even when the team have had good results and I'm happy with that, I don't really feel a part of it, but when the results are not so good then I want to play my part in helping the team, so it's really frustrating."

"I did have a few setbacks. Early on when I got out of the cast there was progression in terms of going from slight jogging to sprinting and running.

"Once I had started that, however, there wasn't much else left to do, so I was desperate to start kicking a ball again.

"The physio was telling me to give it another week to avoid any chance of having a setback, but I felt fine.

"You are almost tempted to test it yourself, but then you don't want to go back to square one, so you just have to be as patient as you can."

Odhiambo's patience is now clearly paying off. Having made his comeback in the Highland derby defeat against Ross County as a substitute at the start of the month, he came off the bench in the next game against Airdrie United and scored a wonderful goal in what was a 2-0 win for Inverness.

"The manager actually joked with me the other day that I only actually took the shot because I was already tired!" He said. "He told me that if I was fit then I probably would have brought it down and tried to play a little bit.

"It was good to come on in that game and have an impact, but the goal was important to us because of the way the game was going at the time. At 1-0 it was a bit edgy and if we hadn't got that second goal it could have gone either way."

The goal was a timely boost for Odhiambo, particularly as events on the field have not gone as smoothly as those off it.

Having settled well into life in the Highland Capital, the only personal disappointment from Odhiambo's perspective is the fact he has not been able to be more of an effective force on the pitch.

"The worst thing about everything in my time in Inverness is the fact that while everything outwith playing football has been great, I haven't kicked on in terms of becoming a better player as much as I wanted to, but with the injuries hopefully behind me that will improve" he added.

sports@inverness-courier.co.uk

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