Long days on road to recovery

IT IS difficult to put a time scale on when I will be back in contention for a place in the team.

My injured ankle is improving a little bit, but last week I tried to do some straight-line running and I just couldn’t manage to get through it.

The ligaments on top of my left ankle are the problem and it’s sore.

I am hoping it won’t be too long before I am back involved again, but for now I just have to stay patient.

They are long days when you are injured. Yesterday, I was in at 10am when the rest of the squad started at noon and I was among the last to go home as well.

The physio, Craig Schofield, is very good and at the moment he is treating me, Mike Jones and Jonathan Forte, with Jake Cassidy now back training with the team again.

The day follows the pattern of treatment, cardiovascular work — boxing, or on the bike — strengthening, lunch, more strengthening with some upper body exercises in there and then treatment once again.

It can be frustrating to be out of the action. The last time I was here, I only failed to start one game for the whole season, when I was on the bench against Notts County.

But Craig is very good at what he does and works you really hard, which is important.

I watched the Mansfield replay from the Main Stand and the conditions really were dreadful. The rain was coming down at all angles and you could see the wind blowing the goal netting around. It is probably the worst that I have come across.

It was 0-0 at half-time, but I felt that once we took the lead through Danny Philliskirk, there was only ever going to be one winner. Dominic Poleon got the second and we cruised it from there.

Tomorrow it is the return of Lee Johnson, but it isn’t something the players have really spoken about.

From our point of view it’s just another chance to get three points and to continue that run of victories.

Mansfield may be from League Two but it was important for us to build on a positive result at Chesterfield and we managed to do that.