Johnson has suffered two major injuries in his short career

Manchester City midfielder Michael Johnson is confident he will be fit to return from cruciate ligament damage in time for pre-season training.

In December, the 22-year-old suffered the second major injury of his career, having previously being ruled out for almost a year by abdominal problems.

But the former England Under-21 star has had the all clear from his surgeon.

Johnson told mcfc.com: "The timing of pre-season gives me a good target and I'm very confident I can make it."

A product of City's youth academy, Johnson has played 45 times for the club since making his debut against Wigan in 2006.

But the Manchester-born player unable to play between September 2008 and September 2009 because of abdominal problems.

606: DEBATE Will Johnson be able to break back into City's side next season?

After returning to the first team last year Johnson only featured twice, coming on in the 89th minute against West Ham in August and scoring in his side's 5-1 defeat of Scunthorpe in the Carling Cup in October, before suffering the knee injury five weeks later.

"No player wants to have to go through such a long recovery and it has just been bad luck that I have had two in a row early in my career," said Johnson.

"Having recovered from a serious injury before means that this time I am a little more experienced and can deal with the frustrations much better.

"I went down to see the surgeon for my 12-week check-up just a few weeks ago and he gave me the all clear. It looks as though the surgery has been very successful.

"The graft was strong and he told me to start building up my running now and start strengthening my knee again day by day."

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