Town striker Richard Naylor may be back sooner than we thought and is looking to next week's reserve game with West Ham. Naylor had two operations last summer for his tendinitis problem, but not long afterwards broke his leg.

Then once he recovered from that he started getting the same symptoms as last season and a scan showed that he could need more operations similar to the ones he had in the summer. However, the club were keen to avoid surgery and saw operations as a short-term measure which got rid of the symptoms, but not the underlying cause of his problems.

Naylor then saw Mark Bender, a New Zealand biochemist, and an expert on injuries of the type Naylor has suffered from. It seems that his problems are in the main biomechanical with his running style, posture and leg length (one is longer than the other) all contributing to his problems. From there he was recommended orthotics (insoles in shoes designed to influence the body's movement) to see if he could get back to full fitness.

It seems all the orthotics and other treatments may be bearing fruit with Bam Bam himself saying: "Past history tells me not to get too carried away, but I’ve been in training for the past few days and it’s not feeling too bad. I’d love to step out for the reserves next Wednesday."

Fingers crossed that this marks the end of a terrible run of injuries.

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