By Chris Todd Torquay United defender

When he told me I couldn't stop smiling! I was trying to ask him questions but I couldn't get my head around it

I've been given the brilliant news that I can start training from next week!

I've not been able to take part in full-contact training since my diagnosis with leukaemia last November as my spleen had swelled. It meant that if I took a knock in the wrong place it could potentially cause a lot of damage.

But having seen the doctor he says my spleen has shrunk from 16cm wide to 12.5cm wide. I didn't know if that was good or bad and I thought I'd still have to wait for a few weeks before I could get going but he says 12.5cm is normal for a lad of my size.

When he told me I couldn't stop smiling! I was trying to ask him questions but I couldn't get my head around it!

My bloods are still good - my count of white blood cells is down to 2.9 but they'll still be keeping a close eye on me. My white blood cells can't drop too low or else I risk getting really ill if my body can't fight off infections.

And what a week to get the news after beating Blackpool in the FA Cup.

It was brilliant and to be fair I thought we thoroughly deserved it, we outplayed them and a neutral would have said we were the much better side, to do that against a Championship team shows how much we've moved on.

If we could beat Coventry it would be an amazing achievement for a Conference club to get to the last 16 of the FA Cup Chris Todd

But it's not all perfect and the draw wasn't a great one for me. I've always said that I wanted either Arsenal or Swansea City away and I know the lads wanted one of the big boys as well.

Realistically we've got a chance to go through and the bonus is that we're at home.

I went to the club to watch the draw with some of the lads and when there was about 10 teams left, including us, and all the big boys had gone, we were all just hoping we had a home draw.

If we could beat Coventry it would be an amazing achievement for a Conference club to get to the last 16 of the FA Cup.

It would be a club record and this season the club has broken quite a lot of records which is amazing. It's down to the management and the players and the staff around them.

Chris Todd was talking to BBC South West's Brent Pilnick.

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