Luke Wilkinson has said he believes 172 minutes of football after seven weeks out through injury has got him back to near his best.
The centre-half played his first 90 minutes for more than two months in the 2-1 win over Eastleigh at the weekend as he finds his way back from a hamstring injury.
Speaking ahead of a trip to one of his former clubs, Dagenham & Redbridge, on Saturday, Wilko said: “It’s going to take a couple of games (to get back in to it), it’s little things like how you move your feet.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
“I thought I was at fault for the goal on Saturday, if I was fully fit I would get a block in there and it doesn’t get to that point.
“Those little sharp movements that two or three games I should be back where I was.”
He added: “It was frustrating (coming back from injury) because I want to be out there training every day, but sometimes your body says no. It’s playing it day by day.
“I have played 170 minutes in the last week at Yate, Larkhall and then 90 minutes on Saturday.
“So to go from seven weeks out to playing that much as soon as possible is quite a lot.”
At the start of the season, the Glovers’ skipper spoke about having put his injury woes behind him having only played 20 times due to a troublesome calf injury.
Having played the first five matches, he suffered a hamstring injury after just 28 minutes of the 2-0 home defeat to Chesterfield which put him out for seven weeks.
In his pre-match press conference, manager Darren Sarll spoke about the additions the club have made in a bid to stop the persistent run of injuries his side suffered last season.
He said: “There is an infrastructure around the players which means we are better at managing them now.
“We made some changes with our new physio is excellent, brought in some brilliant principles. Scott Wickens, our young sports scientist, has gone above and beyond and is learning.
“We have advertised for a physio ten times in two-and-a-half years and if we had five applicants I would be surprised.
“But, we managed to source ourselves a relationship with a company in Bristol, Back to Action.
“We work closely with them for all our care within our means to make it as professional and robust as possible.”