Season › 2012-13 › News Hammar's hard work paying off Michael Kenrick , 9 July, 3comments | Jump to most recent Unheard of beyond Everton Academy, 18-year-old Swedish defender Johan Hammar has been talking about stepping up to train with the first team squad in Austria and getting more playing time in the Reserves. Last season, Hammar's progress was stunted by a succession of untimely injuries and he made just. Now, having successfully battled back to full fitness, the Swede is pleased to see his patience and persistence is paying off. "It's a good experience to be alongside the gaffer and the first-team players as well, to see how they're doing things and to get used to the tempo that hopefully you'll be playing at in the future," he added. "Obviously it's much quicker than what I'm used to and you have to concentrate 100 per cent all the time, so it's not just tough physically, it's tough mentally as well. But you get used to it." "It was very tough last year and this [training with the first team] is kind of a reward," he said. "Hard work pays off, doesn't it? If you work hard in the gym you get these kind of rewards." Quotes or other material sourced from Evertonfc.com Reader Comments (3) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer James Flynn 1 Posted 09/07/2012 at 17:35:35 Anyone seen this kid? Noel Lynam 2 Posted 09/07/2012 at 18:31:11 He had a 1987 hit with "Crockett's Theme" but his career has stalled since then. Shaun Turner 3 Posted 09/07/2012 at 19:01:45 I seem to remember him following it up with his 1990 hit 'Can't touch this' from his hit album PLEASE HAMMER DONT HURT EM. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads