The last time Will Hughes played in a Championship semi-final play-off, back in 2014, he scored surely one of the best goals Derby County fans have ever seen. With the ball coming in low from the left, the then 19-year-old was tightly marked but running at full pelt towards the penalty spot he somehow managed to backheel the ball first-time into the far corner, past Brighton’s Tomasz Kuszczak. It was an inch-perfect, impish piece of skill and showed just why Derby had reportedly been fighting off a £15m bid from Liverpool for their academy graduate, a move that would have made him the eighth most expensive teenager of all time.

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“I could play for the next 20 years and that will still be my best ever goal – I don’t think it’s going to get much better than that,” says Hughes two years on. “But my thoughts of those play-offs will always be of the subsequent final against QPR at Wembley.”

It is another thing that is hard to forget for Derby players and fans, but for very different reasons. With Hughes pulling the strings in midfield, the Rams dominated the game, enjoying 68% possession, but Bobby Zamora struck in injury time with QPR’s first shot on target to take the London club to the Premier League. “I assumed we were going to go on and win, especially when they went down to 10 men,” Hughes adds. “Their players were waiting for us to score. I was on such a high, expecting to win. But to go from that to the lowest of the low – the dressing room afterwards was silent, speechless. After 48 games, it changed in five seconds. Football summed-up that day.”

Wembley and promotion is the aim this year, too, and first they must face Hull City on Saturday in the first leg of their semi-final. “We’ve got more of a drive to do it this time,” he says. “It was a freak.” For the most part, Hughes has not played his part this season, owing to an ACL knee injury suffered on the opening day at Bolton. With nobody around him he fell awkwardly and spent eight months out of the game.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Will Hughes damaged his ACL ligaments at Bolton in August and made his next appearance eight months later against the same opponents. Photograph: Andy Clarke/Rex Shutterstock

“I knew straight away it was serious,” he says. “You never think it’s going to happen to you. I couldn’t walk for a good few weeks after having surgery. You’re pretty much bed-bound. I went from confusion, to anger. You start to think: ‘Am I ever going to get back to where I was?’ I was very paranoid.” Ever since his debut aged 16 in 2011 Hughes has oozed composure and confidence but it is obvious that his injury rocked him to the core, physically and mentally. It is the only part of the interview at Derby’s training ground when he does not make electric-blue eye contact; where suddenly he looks like a normal, shy 21-year-old.

Hughes sought advice from those around him. His sisters, his mum – “she doesn’t know a great deal about football, but when I was down, she was always there” – and his housemate Josh Lelan, who plays for Northampton Town, were among those who pitched in. His team-mate George Thorne, who had a similar injury last year – and who will miss the play-offs after suffering a double leg break last weekend – was also on hand “to answer any questions I might have”.

Hughes is bright. He was privately educated just south of Derby at Repton school – alumni include Roald Dahl and Jeremy Clarkson – and despite leaving at 16 when he signed scholarship forms with Derby, he got a tutor to complete his A levels in politics and business studies. When he was injured, he learned Spanish: “I wasn’t very good when Paul Clement [as manager] was here, so I had to talk to him in English, but it’s something I always wanted to do to broaden my horizons, and it will be very handy when I’m older, when I finish football.”

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But Hughes is far from finished, and if anybody needs an example as to how important his return is for Derby on his comeback – Shaun Barker’s testimonial in March – the striker Chris Martin fell to his knees as if to worship the midfielder as he came on.

Coming on as a substitute to make his first-team return in April against Bolton, Derby fans chanted his name the moment they spotted his distinctive ghost-white hair emerging from the bench. When Hughes’s name was read out, it was as though a goal had been scored. “It was nice to make my comeback in front of the home fans. The reception was worth it. That’s been the highlight of my year,” he says.

Hughes is back, and with recent injuries to Thorne, Bradley Johnson and Jeff Hendrick, his return to central midfield is timely for the manager, Darren Wassall, but may mean that he has to play in a holding role rather than as a more natural No10. Hughes is now a senior member of the squad – of last weekend’s starting XI, only Craig Bryson has been in the first team longer than him –and should Derby fail to gain promotion, one suspects there will be interested parties.

Crystal Palace’s chairman, Steve Parish, tweeted his admiration for a Hughes assist against Brighton this month, but he seems interested only in reaching the top flight with Derby. “I’m still young, I’ve still got a lot of time to play in the Premier League. But hopefully this year is our year.”