Shola eyeing return

Talking to the official club site (or is that Frederick`s puppet Alan Oliver given they seem to carry parallel articles…?) the big Sho set out his hopes for the rest of the season and underlined his regrets at having missed so much of a shocker of a campaign through injury:

"It's gone a lot better than I first anticipated, which is great for me. What I've got to do now is get fit, and get all the muscles firing and strong. That's the stage I'm at now, and hopefully in not too long a time I'll be back training. I've been working with the ball for the past couple of weeks, which is a nice change for me. When you're so close, you're just itching to get back. But you don't want to rush things, as that could set you back. You've just got to make sure everything's right before you step up. There's not really a time put on it. It depends how quickly I get past each step, but hopefully I'll get a couple of games in this season.

That's the target I've set myself, but I don't want to set a date in case something goes wrong. You have to set yourself targets. When they told me I needed the operation, the first thing I said was `can I play again this season?' You have to give yourself that incentive to keep working hard. It's tough at times being on the sidelines, and I think it helps you to keep your focus. You need to be focused if you're going to work hard, and I've been delighted with how my rehab has gone. It's disappointing not being out there with the lads helping them. The injury couldn't have come at a worse time for me. I felt I was playing a lot better, but this is a learning curve for me as well.

You're a lucky player if you go through your career without a long lay-off. I think I'll come back a better player from this. It's frustrating watching from the sidelines, and I have seen how frustrated the fans must feel. I definitely feel it's helped me. It's frustrating, but on the other hand, hopefully this is me fit now, and that hasn't been the case for a few years. Hopefully when I come back I can look forward to playing pain-free, and I can be a big asset to the club.'

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