Downing has had a pin removed from his broken foot
Winger Stewart Downing has stepped up his rehabilitation and set his sights on a December debut for Aston Villa.
Downing has been out of action with a broken foot since May and is yet to play for Villa since joining from Middlesbrough for £12m in July.
The 24-year-old broke his foot playing for Boro against his new club but says he is on target to resume training.
He said: "I'll hopefully be back training in mid-November and then looking to play within a month."
The England winger has had a pin removed from his foot and says he now needs to build up his fitness.
"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," he said.
"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."
Downing suffered the injury in a clash with Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov at the Riverside Stadium but says that having the pin removed from his foot has allowed him to step up his rehabilitation.
"Having the pin removed was a big part of my recovery because that would show it (the foot) was fully recovered," he said. "Now it is just a case of stepping things up."
The Villa new boy, who was Martin O'Neill's first signing of the summer, said he had considered giving Petrov the pin from his foot but had resisted.
He said: "I was going to give the pin to Stiliyan but I have already given him enough stick and made him feel guilty."
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