Finnigan still has work to do to reach full fitness

Cheltenham Town captain John Finnigan has admitted he is still several weeks away from a return to fitness.

The 32-year-old midfielder has been out for nearly a year with a heel injury which was operated on in the summer.

Finnigan told BBC Gloucestershire: "I've got to the stage now where I've got to get over that final hurdle.

"There's just no way I could go back into the squad the pain's just too much at the moment, but hopefully that'll subside over the next few weeks."

With the pain, Finnigan is refusing to put a target on a comeback date for himself.

"I've put timescales on it before and I've missed them by a mile and I don't want to say I'm going to be back on this date or that date and then let people down again.

"I'd rather just get on with it and I'll know when it's back to normal again."

In the meantime, he remains a regular in the gym and on the treatment table at Cheltenham's training ground, but is still building towards being able to take a full part in training again.

"I've done a bit of training with the youth team and I can do the short stuff quite well, but when we open out to a bigger pitch I'm just having problems - it takes it out of the heel a little bit more and you've got a bit more pressure through it and it's just not quite there yet."