Tough time for injured lee

"Of course I was delighted with the result and having picked up four points from our last two games we seem to be starting to gain a little bit of momentum.

"Hopefully we can now start to climb the table - though we have couple of tough games agaist Forest and Leyton Orient coming up," said the centre-back.

"But it is very frustrating being sat in the stand if you are a professional footballer and I am no different; I want to be out there helping the lads and the sooner that I can do that the better.

"Things have gone well since the operation and I have started doing some upper body work but apart from that I am very limited as to what I can do because I can only move my knee 40 degrees.

"I will be going back to see the specialist in a few weeks' time and I am hoping to be able to start doing some work on the exercise bike some time after that.

"It is one of those injuries that you can't rush and you have to get it right before you start playing again, but I am hoping to be ready for a game sometime in January if everything goes to plan."

Lee injured his knee earlier in his career and has been no stranger to the treatment table over the years, but he says his current injury isn't related.

"I felt a pain in the knee when I landed after jumping in training and it swelled up," he recalled. "I thought at the time that it was because I hadn't done anything for eight weeks following my neck injury and that I may have been doing too much too soon trying to make up for lost time.

"When the knee didn't respond to rest and treatment I was sent for an exploratory operation convinced that I would only need a clean out job and that I'd be back in training within a couple of weeks.

"But when the surgeon looked inside the joint he noticed that the top of my fubula was cracked.

"I was gutted when I came around after the operation and was told that I would be out for four months.

"The only consolation is that it wasn't the main weight bearing bone in the leg and the damage wasn't as bad as Kevin Horlock's injury which ruled him out for all of last season after being hurt in only the second game.

"They say that things come in threes so hopefully I will have a clear run when I get fit again having had an ankle clean out at the end of last season and then damaging a vertebrae at the top of my neck doing some press-ups in pre-season training. What has happened to me shows just how football can kick you in the teeth.

"I was really on a high at the end of last season after scoring the winning goal in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and winning a lot of player of the season awards, but it has all gone wrong for me since I reported back for pre-season training feeling really fit."

n Midfielders Brian Stock and Ritchie Wellens, two of the stars against Huddersfield, have been named in the League One Team of the Week.