Worthy closing in on comeback

Jon Worthington: Out of action since mid-October.

JON WORTHINGTON is keen to show Athletic fans what they have been missing.

The combative midfielder played for just short of an hour for the reserves yesterday, a second run-out in his recovery from ankle ligament surgery.

And the 26-year-old is targeting a first-team comeback next month — right in time for relegation-threatened Athletic’s most crucial period of the season.

“My ankle feels good and that is pleasing,” said the former Huddersfield Town midfielder, who has been out of action since sustaining his injury against Southampton in mid-October.

“It is just a case on working on fitness now. When you have been out for four months, it isn’t like being out for a few weeks where it just takes one game and you are back to it.

“I need to get the rustiness out of me and hopefully after getting another reserves game I will be able to feature.

“It was a bad one and it is the first time I have had a long-term injury like this.

“Though I want to get back a quickly as possible to help the lads, I want to make sure it is 100-per-cent right.”

At the time of Worthington’s injury, Athletic were in ninth place in Coca-Cola League One but have since slipped into the relegation places with a tough home match against Norwich City to come on Saturday.

However, he believes that the squad has the ability to lift itself out of the drop zone.

“We have had to cope with a lot of injuries to key players and have slipped down the table,” Worthington added.

“No professional likes to be on the sidelines watching and I want to be out there helping my team-mates.

“It has been especially frustrating being my new club but hopefully I will be back soon to show the fans what I can do and help the lads.

“This week was always going to be a tough week and we knew that as a squad.

“But now we have got a run of games where we are more than capable of picking up points and we still have a couple of games in hand as well.

“Beat the teams around us and we will be fine and in mid-table.

“The spirit is good and we will stick together to get the results we need.”

The current gloom hanging over the club increased with the reserves suffering a 7-0 hammering at the hands of Rochdale yesterday afternoon at Radcliffe Borough FC.

Athletic, watched by manager Dave Penney, put out a side featuring Kelvin Lomax, Hasney Aljofree, Kieran Lee, Lewis Alessandra and Ryan Brooke as well as Worthington.

But after falling behind 2-0 by half-time, Rochdale rattled in a further five after the break with the goals coming from Kallum Higginbotham (three), Callum Byrne, Andy Haworth, Oliver Devenney and Reece Gray.