By Chris Bevan

Parkin is still joint-top Ipswich goalscorer with five goals

Sam Parkin is confident his injury nightmare will soon be over.

The Ipswich Town striker, a £750,000 summer signing from Swindon Town, has been sidelined since November when he broke his ankle against Reading.

Parkin, 24, was closing in on a comeback before his ankle flared up last week, causing him to miss Tuesday's reserve game against Coventry, but he is still on course to feature again this season.

He tells BBC Sport about his time in the treatment room and how he is keen to put his problems behind him.

To begin with I was in plaster for six weeks so I did very little during that time. I was in a few days a week doing a bit of upper-body stuff just to keep me going.

Parkin breaks ankle

As soon as I was out of the plaster and able to walk again then it was just a lot of swimming really.

I continued with a little bit of work in the gym until I was able to start using an exercise bike and eventually had a couple of weeks doing runs on the treadmill.

I was just building it up and going through a list of bits and pieces that the physio gave me to do related to ballwork, twisting and work outside before I joined the group.

I had never really missed any games because of injury throughout my career before now.

That is the most positive thing I am taking from it. I got to almost 25 and this is the first serious injury I have had. I have been lucky that way.

Hopefully I won't suffer another one but that has put things in perspective for me.

When I was in plaster I didn't get to games - it is better to be resting to begin with really.

But as soon as I was out of plaster over the Christmas period I was at the majority of home games.

It is disappointing not to be involved but it is still nice to get behind the rest of the lads.

I was in quite a lot of pain last week and quite worried about it.

The problem when you have an operation is you often get secondary injuries then separate injuries when you are coming back.

But the physios have now got a better idea of what is causing me discomfort and the plan is to give it a few more days to settle down. And if it doesn't then there is a course of action they can take.

I am sure it does not mean more surgery but there is something they can do to calm down the inflamation - and hopefully it will continue to improve.

I was told I would be out for three to four months to begin with so I was well ahead of schedule and I have not been too downbeat.

The last 10 days or so have been the hardest because I was almost back. I had been training with the lads and maybe could have been on the bench this weekend if it had all gone well.

I have been away from the first team for a long time now but just to get some games in before the end of the season would be a massive bonus.