Mark Warburton is confident of seeing striker Scott Hogan back in a Brentford shirt sooner than expected.

The summer signing from Rochdale was ruled out for the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament when he caught his studs in the turf during the win at Rotherham in August.

However, the 22 year old's rehab is going much better than expected, and the Bees boss reckons his frontman will emerge all the stronger for what he has gone through.

He said: “Scott saw a specialist who is delighted with his progress, and he is ahead of where he should be in terms of the stability of the knee and the area around it.

“He's getting the best medical care and attention, which speaks volumes about the club, and we will be flying him out to Philadelphia to see one of the world's best anterior cruciate ligament rehab people in the world.

“Hopefully he will be back sooner than expected. He's had some dark days, but he's in a good place right now and can see all his hard work is paying off, and he will come back a stronger person.

“Injuries like that demand a lot from you, I did it twice myself. You have to spend hours on the bike, in the gym and in the pool building up the quad muscle, but I came out of it a much better player than I was.

“It's a different level of experience and surgery from when I was a player though, and the care and attention players receive now, it's like a different world.”