Ipswich Town right-back Kane Vincent-Young says recovery from two lots of surgery has been slow, but that he still has a February return date in mind.
Having made a flying start to life with the Blues following a £500k switch from Colchester, the 23-year-old was forced to undergo two lots of surgery in November - first a hernia repair, then on an adductor tendon - with his absence coinciding with a downturn in results for Paul Lambert's men.
Town physio Matt Byard revealed it would likely be the start of February before Vincent-Young could train with the first team again.
Asked how his recovery was going, Vincent-Young said: "Slow, but that's to be expected. I was warned it would take a little while. It's just a case of being patient and waiting until my body is right.
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"It's very early in the recovery. We're just waiting for the whole area to settle down. I'm looking to ramp up the work in the gym in the new year and then hopefully then things will progress pretty quickly. For now though we're just being careful.
"It's difficult to put a time frame on things. They said 12 weeks and hopefully it will still be around that."
"I love playing and I do want to be back as quickly as possible, but once I'm back I don't want there to be any more set-backs. It needs to be right."
Looking back on the injury, which forced him off in the games against Fleetwood and Southend, the flying full-back said: "It was a weird one, a bit of a shock to be honest. I had the first operation, which all went well, then I went for a scan to see how things were progressing and that's when we picked up the problem that was causing all the trouble.
"It was kind of a big surprise to all of us, but we got our heads around it and the main things is we know what the problem was and I'm on the mend.
"I just want to be fully fit. That's something I struggled with for a couple of games before the first operation. I'm sure once I'm back and pain free things will better."
He added: "I'm used playing full seasons, so this is a tough one to take. It's part and parcel of the game though.
"Everything was going really well for me and the team, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. These things happen. Fingers crossed, once I'm back there will still be enough time to hopefully make an impact."
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