Curtis Davies makes revelation about Derby County’s Championship survival | OneFootball

Derby County defender Curtis Davies has revealed he signed a waiver in order to play in the Rams’ final day draw with Sheffield Wednesday that secured the club’s Championship status.

Davies had been ruled out for the whole season due to a ruptured Achilles back in December, but still featured against the Owls on Saturday.

The centre back came off the bench with eight minutes of normal time remaining to help the Rams secure a 3-3 draw that kept them up and sent Wednesday, as well as Rotherham – who could only draw 1-1 at Cardiff – down to League One.

Now it seems as though Davies went to great lengths to ensure he could play his part in that, without any backlash hitting the club, if his return caused him further injury issues.

Explaining the situation that led to his premature and unexpected return to action, Davies told The Athletic: “I ended up signing a waiver to make sure nobody within the club would get into trouble if anything went wrong.

“It was me saying it was my decision and by no means had I been given medical clearance. I didn’t want there to be anything on their back if the worst happened.

“They couldn’t clear me to say I was fit to play a game. But they believed in my character and the role I’d have to play off the bench. I think they’d have pushed back a bit harder if I was a young lad.”

Which eight of these 20 players never scored a goal for Derby?

Indeed, it seems by the time he came off the bench, Davies had become adamant he would feature in the game, as he continued: “I’d spoken with my wife as well. Morally I couldn’t not do it. It almost became a selfish thing from my end.

“I was physically able to give 10 or 15 minutes to the team and that became everything for me. She knows me well enough to trust my judgement.”