Ashton plays down comeback talk

Updated 08.04 Thu Mar 01 2007

Keywords: Dean Ashton, Alan Curbishley, Premiership, West Ham

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley is facing another setback because Dean Ashton insists he is still a long way from playing again.

The striker has not played since August when he broke an ankle while training with the England squad.

"I am not even thinking about match-fitness" - Dean Ashton

Original hopes that he could be back in action by Christmas proved premature and Ashton does not want to set any targets for his return.

He said: "I'm not even thinking about match-fitness. I'm just trying to build myself up slowly. People see it as just a broken bone. It's more complicated than that.

"I had a cortisone injection to get rid of some scar tissue about five weeks ago and after that everything was feeling really good.

"My ankle was actually feeling the best it has felt. So I started doing fitness work again. I was feeling great but because I came out on to the training pitches looking really good and being really optimistic, perhaps people got the wrong end of the stick."