JOE Turley is closing in on his Evesham United comeback after receiving the go-ahead to resume full training.

Midfielder Turley, 24, ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in December 2016 and required surgery in order to resurrect his playing career.

His initial prognosis involved anything up to a year out of the game but the central midfielder, a regular presence for the Robins before his injury, has been cleared to increase his fitness regime.

“Joe has been given the all-clear by his specialist so he can start to go full throttle in training now,” said Evesham manager Paul Collicutt.

“We will be looking to get two or three weeks of hard training into him and then he will start to play a bit of football. We will look to push him on from there.

“It is a case of seeing how far we can go at the right pace. With him being out for so long, we don’t want to rush him, we want to make sure he is right.

“There is still quite a way to go but the big thing is gaining permission to take part in full training from the surgeon.”

Meanwhile, Collicutt pulled no punches over Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to Didcot Town in Southern League Division One West.

“It was a lacklustre performance and a big disappointment,” he added.

“We have to do a lot better than that.

“The players were left with no uncertainty that I felt very strongly about the fact we need to make great strides.

“Other teams dropped points around us on Saturday but that was of no consolation to me, the performance was well below-par. I was not happy at all.”

Evesham have brought forward their home league fixture with Mangotsfield United from Wednesday, November 29, to Saturday, October 28 (3pm).