Revitalised Shrewsbury Town striker Nathan Elder was today taking a major step towards ending his nine-month injury hell – by returning to full training.

The 25-year-old has been sidelined since suffering a serious knee ligament injury during a loan spell at AFC Wimbledon last April.

But Elder has made encouraging progress along the long road to recovery, and the former Brentford striker has one eye on a possible reserve team comeback for Town at Morecambe next Wednesday.

“I have been doing some parts of training – like the warm-ups and passing drills – with the boys for a little while. But hopefully I will be able to do everything from today onwards,” said Elder.

“I think the plan was for me to train fully on Monday but the pitch was frozen so we didn’t want to take any risks.

“It has been such a long time, but to be back out there again is a massive boost for me.

“If everything goes according to plan, I’m hoping I might be able to get a run out for the last 10 minutes of the reserve game next week.

“We will see how things go but that’s what I’m focussing on at the moment.”

Elder, who has not featured for Shrewsbury since December 2009, admits his long absence has given him a fresh perspective on football.

“It’s made me realise how much playing football and doing well means to me,” said Elder.

“I had some decent spells with Shrewsbury before I went out to Wimbledon and got injured.

“But I’ve also watched some clips where I’ve analysed my game and there were things I wasn’t impressed with.

“It’s a fresh start and I will treat every game now like it’s my last.”

With Dutchman Benjamin van den Broek also returning from a long injury absence, manager Graham Turner now has five striking options with James Collins, Matt Harrold and Tom Bradshaw supplementing the comeback duo.

By JAMES GARRISON