Jon Taylor is delighted to see the light at the end of the tunnel after his injury-hit season for Rovers.
The winger is set to return to training early in pre-season after a year of injury woes which restricted him to only three appearances last term.
And having a clear path back to action has provided a major boost for the 29-year-old.
“It was hard to talk about it during the season because I was getting so many setbacks that I never had an end goal,” he said.
“I didn’t want to be out injured and I didn’t want to see the team suffering. I wanted to help them.
“I was fighting a losing battle.
“When you can see the end goal, you’re starting to train, you’re starting to feel better and you can start to think about playing football again, doing what you want to do.
“I’m feeling good and I’m really looking forward to pre-season.”
Taylor was at Cantley Park earlier this week as first team manager Gary McSheffrey put on a training session for recovering players including Tom Anderson and Bobby Faulkner.
“He put us through a very hard session that will probably be like a pre-season session we’ll get in a few weeks time,” Taylor said.
“To get all that work into us now will put me in good stead. When I go away on my holiday and get married, I can finally smile thinking that when I come back I’m going to be fully fit.”
The last year has given Taylor a fresh outlook on the game and he is determined to stay injury-free.
“It’s changed things in my life because I’m not going to take anything for granted football-wise any more,” he said.
“I wouldn’t wish injuries on anyone. After the year I’ve had, the setbacks I’ve had and things like that, I wouldn’t want to go back to that place.
“Hopefully I can stay fit for the rest of my career because I don’t want to go back to that.”
