Wigan Athletic guest column: Gavin Massey

It’s been nice to get out there with the lads, and a bit of fresh air after so long inside.

It’s been just over two months since my hamstring operation, and at the time the doctor said it would be around four months.

I’m doing some bits a little bit earlier than I thought I would, and that’s credit to the physios we have here.

I’m up to about 50 per cent of what I can do, and we’re looking to raise that over the next few days and weeks.

I’ve even had the ball at my feet which was great, after being stuck in the gym for so long!

We’ve got a comeback date in our heads and, if all goes well, hopefully I’ll be back by then.

I don’t want to say what that date is, because I don’t want to be putting any undue pressure on myself.

The last thing I want to do is come back too early and make it worse, that would be a nightmare.

It looks like Griggy will be back first of the injured players, his wasn’t quite as bad as mine.

Crackers is also stepping up a bit, but I’m still looking at the longest time to be back.

It’s crazy the amount of injuries we’ve had already this season.

And they’ve been to some pretty major players, like Crackers and Griggy.

We’re obviously all devastated to be out and doing everything we can to get back and help the team.

Results of late haven’t been positive, but we’re not fearful at all.

We know we’ve got a good squad here and I’m confident the fortunes will turn around soon.

It’s been strange we’ve had so many hamstring injuries at the same time.

And it’s not like you can bracket them all together, because Griggy did his on international duty, and mine was a freak incident.

It’s just with the nature of the sport that there’s a lot of sprinting, and the hamstring is the muscle you’re most a risk of damaging.

You look back to last year and we had next to no injuries.

This year we’ve had three hamstring operations already - it’s crazy.

It’s been hard to watch the team going through a tough patch, but we’ve been up against some quality opposition.

We’re confident we’ve got a good squad here, but when you get the amount of injuries we have, it would be hard for any team.

The international break should at least give us chance to get a few guys back closer to a return.

And when that is the case, I don ‘t think we’ll have a problem in picking up results and get moving in the right direction again.

The squad here is too good for that not to be the case, the quality of players is too high.

Certainly no-one in the camp is panicking on that score.