James Grayson says he is ready to compete with Fin Smith to be Northampton’s first-choice fly-half following a lengthy injury lay-off.
The 24-year-old recently returned to action after suffering a stress fracture in his foot last October.
Saturday’s win over Gloucester was his first Premiership start since then.
“It’s been a long 12 or 13 weeks feeling like I’ve not been able to contribute to the team,” Grayson told BBC Radio Northampton.
“Stress fracture, it’s one that I had when I was younger and it’s come back – my body basically couldn’t heal itself again, so I had to go under the knife and get a bit of metalwork put in.
“Unavoidable, it’s one of those things in the game, they crop up every now and again. Fingers crossed, it will be my last one.”
Grayson contributed 11 points to the 41-34 victory over the Cherry and Whites, which kept Saints third in the table as they look to match last season’s run to the play-offs.
“Fin’s done well, it’s one of those things, Biggs goes [Dan Biggar] and you think ‘hopefully I’m going to get a bit more game time’ and then Worcester and Wasps go kaput and Fin, who was going to come next year, comes early and I get injured,” he said.
“He’s taken his opportunity nicely, he’s kicked the ball well and been part of a couple of good wins and I’m looking forward to competing with him over the next couple of years.
“We’re both young so we’ve got plenty of rugby ahead of us and hopefully we can both be going at it and making the team better.”
Saints have five regular-season games left to cement their place in the top four and will next pit their brand of entertaining rugby against Bristol on Friday.
Their game at Franklin’s Gardens in October – Grayson’s last before his lay-off – finished 45-31 to Northampton, and it could be another high-scoring contest at Ashton Gate.
“It’s a tough place to go,” said Grayson.
“They play a cool brand of rugby, they chuck it around a bit and they’ve got some really good players.
“You can’t really blink. They could be on their five-metre line, looking like they’re going to kick the ball back to you and all of a sudden one of their superstars has picked up through a breakdown and they’re off – they’re tough team to stop when they do that.
“It’s about being 100% in the game, concentrating for the full 80 minutes and just being prepared for everything.”
