Stewart Downing has set his sights on finally making his Aston Villa debut before Christmas.
Downing is stepping up his rehabilitation work after suffering a broken foot when in action for Middlesbrough - ironically against Villa - in April and the England winger, who made a £12million switch to Villa during the summer, has had the pin removed from his foot and is now able to do running work.
The 24-year-old said: "I'll hopefully be back training in mid-November and then looking to play within a month of that."
He added: "The specialist has been telling me what to do from day one. I had been doing straight line running because I couldn't do twisting and turning. But I can do a bit of that now as well so fitness-wise it's just a case of building things up.
"The toughest bit was the first bit when I was on crutches but now the hard work is done and all those long days slogging away in the gym have been worth it.
"Having the pin removed was a big part of my recovery because that would show it (the foot) was fully recovered. Now it is just a case of stepping things up."
Downing suffered the injury in a clash with Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov at the Riverside Stadium.
He said: "I was going to give the pin to Stiliyan but I have already given him enough stick and made him feel guilty."
Comment 1 - 4 of 4
Lets hope downing does get back to producing what every one knows he's capable of
then Ash Young can b put back into the reserves to learn how to get past players on both sides
instead of being a one trick pony which is what he has turned into.
I believe O'Neil has an eye for great signings, look at Ashley Young, Dunne, Collins.
If he thinks Downing is a good signing then so do I.
well we will see i hope he does his best and proves every one wrong and kicks @#$% on the pitch and prove that he was worth the money and puts the effert in to keep villa near the top where they should be so far o,neil has done well with the players he has brought into the club
lol
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account