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Max Dean is champing at the bit to get back out on the pitch and spearhead MK Dons' push for promotion from League Two.

The 20-year-old striker netted nine times in 22 league outings before suffering a hamstring injury in late January, just as Mike Williamson's team were beginning to turn the screw on Mansfield, Stockport and Wrexham for the three automatic places.

But while the lay-off has been frustrating, Dean knows plenty about perseverance. His young career has already taken him through the academies of Everton and Leeds United before he jumped at the chance to play - and score - regularly at MK last season.

It makes Dean the perfect example as the EFL marks its Youth Development Week. Last season, the 72 EFL clubs handed professional debuts to 161 players and he was one of them.

Those players went on to make 911 appearances in all during 2022-23, a cumulative total of 47,698 minutes of action. The EFL really is the place where careers are born.

Mark Jackson coached Dean in the Leeds academy and then signed him for MK Dons in January 2023.

'Straight away, I wanted to get into a first-team environment. At MK, the players they've had come through, the stadium, the unbelievable fans and working with Jacko again - it was a no-brainer,' Dean tells Mail Sport.

'He was the under-18s coach when I went in at Leeds and he went up to the 23s and took me with him. Then he took me to MK Dons.

'The detail he went in to is really good and I owe him a lot. You can use the details but also use the passion of why we play football, playing for fun. If you get the right mix, it's perfect.

'But those little details, when they come off in games, it means a bit more. Maybe the fans don't see the little details but when something you've worked on the training ground comes off, you feel really good.'

Jackson was fired after MK suffered relegation into League Two but Williamson, who came in from National League Gateshead last October, has helped continue Dean's development.

After recovering from a shaky start to the season under Graham Alexander, the team is now only outside the top three by virtue of goal difference with Stockport and Wrexham glancing nervously over their shoulders.

'Even when it wasn't going so good at the start of the season, the bond between every player was there,' Dean says.

'There is a really good feel within the group - obviously now that we're doing well, but even before that. We all knew we were good enough and had a good relationship off the field.

'The gaffer and his assistants, every day, they are on with the young players to urge them to push into the team or, if you're in the team, to stay in the team.

'The small details they go into is incredible and it has meant so much to me to get into double figures [12 goals in all competitions] and hopefully I can push on when I'm back.'

Dean hails from Ormskirk in Lancashire and joined Everton's academy when he was just five to begin his football journey.

'I spent 10/11 years at Everton. I was an Everton fan, I lived 10 minutes away from Goodison and after I'd been there for six or seven years, I moved two minutes away from the training ground.

'Everton was an unbelievable academy, we were going into Europe every three weeks or so all the way up until we were about 15, always playing in competitions.

'You have that winning mentality there because you're always in competitions against other teams and we had a good group at my age.

'Every single tournament there was always us and another big name there. I remember when I was younger going to France and playing against Xavi Simons at Barcelona, we played Dortmund, PSG, it's crazy like.