United striker Deon Burton says he has now recovered from the calf injury he picked up during the Iron’s 3-3 draw at Dagenham back in January.
However, he doesn’t know if he’ll be thrown straight back into Russ Wilcox’s plans straightaway.The 37-year-old Jamaican international rejoined his teammates on Tuesday for the first time in almost three months and he said it was great to be back out there.
“The injury seems fine, touch wood,” Burton told The Iron Player.
“I’ve not had any reactions whatsoever following my first training session with the boys.
“It was great to be back out there training alongside the rest of the lads.
“It has been a long and hard nine weeks on my own in the gym up at Forest Pines but it is really nice to finally be back out there on the training ground.”
The United striker, who has six goals to his name this season, didn’t anticipate to be out of action for this long. Nevertheless he never wanted to rush back into action as it might have caused unknown damage to a partially recovered calf.
It was initially anticipated that Burton would be back in action in March, but several delays have seen a return date pushed further and further back.
“I never expected to be out of action for this long but because it was a reoccurrence for a previous injury I had to make sure I wasn’t rushing back into the frame too early,” Burton explained.
“Daz has remained cautious this time around to make sure that I take my time when it comes to recovering.
“He has made sure I have done all of my rehabilitation correctly and it has taken just a little bit of extra time to make sure that it is right.
“I’m fully fit in the aspect that I am no longer injured, the only different pressing matter is whether I would be able to run for 90 minutes – that is a completely different matter.”
He added: “At the moment I am nowhere near that but it will only take time for me to get better so we’ll see how long it will take.”
Burton has joined the Iron on some of their recent away trips, most notably the Tuesday night game at Cheltenham, where he took part in a light training session before the game.
However, having only been back with the group for one day he is unsure whether he will be making the 600 mile round trip to Devon this weekend.
“Currently I don’t know what the plan is for me and whether I will be travelling to Torquay," Burton said.
“I will have to speak to Russ and see what he thinks but we will just have to see how my body reacts to this first training session that I have done with all the lads.”
See much more from Deon Burton, Russ Wilcox, Matt Sparrow and Michael Collins on The Iron Player.