Defender Reuben Hazell is celebrating his ‘Christmas gift’ of an imminent return to full training at Shrewsbury Town.

Barring any unwelcome setbacks in the new year, former Oldham captain Hazell believes he is less than a month away from re-joining his Town team-mates in their daily work.

And the 32-year-old admitted that is a monumental bonus when compared with the worst case scenario of his serious knee ligament injury sustained in the 2-0 home victory over Torquay at the end of September.

“I went to see the specialist last Wednesday and hopefully that will be the last visit to him,” said Hazell, whose team-mates were in action at Cheltenham today.

“He gave me the go-ahead to carry on with my rehabilitation which is what I’ve been doing.

“I’ve been doing an hour in the gym every day and then going outside to push on with the running, jumping and other work with the physios.

“It’s a time of year when gifts are handed out and I feel as though this is mine because if I had been forced to have an operation, I would have been only getting the basic movement in my leg – like walking without crutches – back now.

“As long as there are no problems, I’d like to think I could be back training with the rest of the lads within a month from now and then it’s a case of building up my fitness and trying to get some practice games under my belt.”

Even when he has returned to full fitness, Hazell – who paid tribute to physio Chris Skitt and the remainder of the Town medical staff for guiding him through the recovery –admits he will have to take precautionary measures to protect the troublesome knee.

“I will do 15 or 20 minutes strength and conditioning work every day before training for the rest of this season and probably for the rest of my career,” added the centre half. “It will make sure that everything remains strong around the knee.”