"He's a high, high talented player, Rushy, and he can go as far as he wants."
That is the sort of ringing endorsement any player wants to hear from their manager. It was the opinion of Frank Lampard after another clean sheet for on-loan goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, in Coventry's win at Bristol City on Saturday.
On Wednesday night at home to Preston, he made it 13 for the season. Since joining the Sky Blues from Brighton for the 2025/26 campaign, Rushworth has become a standout performer and is already a Championship Player of the Year contender.
He has had to be patient after being recalled from a loan spell at Hull after only two weeks last year, when he had also suffered injury problems earlier in that campaign. But now he is thriving under Lampard's guidance.
"I think it was key to get back to playing, as last season was tough being injured, and then going back down to Brighton and not playing too much', he explains to Sky Sports.
"The gaffer's really good. All the players, especially the midfielders like Torpy [Victor Torp] and Grimesy [Matt Grimes], will just soak all the information that the gaffer gives out because he's won everything. He's been through the highs and lows, he knows that the season's not going to be just a consistent trajectory going up.
"The little nuggets of information that we can get from him, whether that's in the meeting rooms doing the analysis or whether it is on the pitch, are key. He'll come over to us and say, 'This is what I want you to be doing', and make it black and white.
"Or he'll put the ownership onto us, saying, 'These are the options that I want to give you, but the game will change, and you can decide whether it's time to play or whether it's time to manage the game a little bit'. I think being able to know that he's got that trust either way makes us perform more freely."
Rushworth has found a real togetherness at Coventry as the team has maintained its promotion push all season, rising to every challenge. Lampard's side have opened up an eight-point gap to second-place Middlesbrough, with Millwall a further point behind in third.
"I think there'll be times where we'll dominate the ball, and then there'll be times where we'll be under the cosh a little bit, and we know how to deal with it, how to manage a game, and then also just get the job done," he adds.
"Sometimes it's not pretty, sometimes it's not attractive, but it's precise football and we'll get the goals, because we've got the talent that we have and the quality at the top of the pitch.
"To be able to help out whenever I can with the back four, we'll celebrate that as well, whether that's a block, or a save. Which just shows how good the connections are that we've built off the pitch.
"To be the opposition, playing against a team that are celebrating every tackle, every time that we win the ball back, it's quite intimidating to play against, because I've been on the other side of that."
The 24-year-old goalkeeper is at an important point in his development. This is his sixth spell on loan from his parent club since 2019, and he has never been shy to test his talents out on the road. It is a journey that has taken in Worthing, Walsall, Lincoln, Swansea and Hull before this latest spell.
"It was something that I spoke with Brighton about when I was young. My first loan was aged 18, and I went to Worthing in the seventh tier. But I didn't care about the level, I just wanted to play and get the physicality of the game, because I was still just young and quite skinny, getting bullied at almost every corner.
"But playing 30 games there, and then going back out to League Two and then League One, gradually taking the steps up, not jumping up too quick, it was massive for me to be at the point where I'm at now with around 160 league games by the age of 24. If I wasn't pushing that, I might have been lost in the system a little bit and be nowhere near the goalkeeper that I am now."
Rushworth credits his first goalkeeper coach at Brighton, Shannon Ruth, with giving him the platform to develop, and his agent Stephen Hunt - a member of the Reading team that broke the Championship points record in 2005/06 - for guidance in a nomadic career so far.
"He's the only agent I've ever had and we've built such a close relationship where we'll speak on a daily basis," Rushworth continues. "To have somebody of his calibre and mentality of striving for the best is really good. He always tells me to keep focus, have the blinkers on and move onto the next game, no matter if we've won or lost.
"All the goalkeeper coaches I've had have helped but Shannon Ruth was the one who got me down to Brighton in the first place. Moving away from home in Halifax it was probably the furthest I could possibly go, to the south coast, but he was really good with me, always checking in and making sure that I was getting the best of what I could from the cards that I was dealt."
Rushworth is also on England's radar, with Thomas Tuchel's coaching staff keeping a keen eye on his talents as this season has progressed. The summer's World Cup squad may come around too quickly but Rushworth makes no secret of his aspirations to be playing at the highest level as soon as possible.
"It has always been a dream to play for England in a World Cup, and it's always something I'll strive for," he adds. "Being involved at England youth level was a privilege, but I didn't play as much as I'd wanted to. But mainly it's about getting to the Premier League, and then England would be the cherry on the top, that little bit extra that I'd love to have on my CV."
Reaching the Premier League with Coventry would be the first step, where club and player would need to work out what they want from each other after that. If Rushworth has been good for his latest loan club, there is no question that the Sky Blues have been good for him.
"It's got a real family feel to it, and everybody really cares about how you're doing on a personal level. Everything has just been the next step up from what I expected. I wasn't expecting anything bad, because Grimesy was boasting about it here from the start, and I trust his opinion, but I've fallen in love with the club and Coventry.
"It helps when we're playing so well, it's hard to see many negatives. I would never have known I could come to a place that would tick as many boxes as this, I love everything about this place."