WOTTON MOVES STEP CLOSER

Plymouth Argyle captain Paul Wotton has admitted he can 'see light at the end of the tunnel' as his recovery from a serious knee injury nears a successful conclusion.The 29-year-old has been taking part in practice matches for the first time this week, during the club's pre-season training camp in Austria.Wotton is not allowed to make tackles, or be tackled by his team-mates in those games as a precaution but, even so, he is enjoying playing football again.The midfielder suffered an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury in the 1-0 home defeat of Hull City in December.But an operation was not carried out until late January because he also had medial ligament and cartilage damage.Now, six months later, Wotton is in upbeat mood with his left knee causing him no problems at all.He told Herald Sport: "I have been doing everything, other than tackling. At the moment, I'm non-contact."That just means the lads can't tackle me and I can't tackle them."But they are pressing and closing me down and I'm pressing and closing them down. The one thing left to do is to go into contact."I'm absolutely thrilled with how it has gone," continued Wotton."We had pencilled in this week to maybe get into a few keep-balls, but things have gone even better than we thought."I have been involved in some eight-a-sides, as well as crossing and finishing and some shooting exercises."My body is still getting used to doing it all again but, touch wood, the knee feels rock solid so to say I'm thrilled is an understatement."Wotton spent virtually all of the close season in the gym at Home Park working on his rehabilitation with Argyle physio Paul Maxwell.He said: "You can do as many weights as you like, and as much running as you like, but you can't really recreate what you do in a game."I have had a few aches and pains but it's nice to feel them. It's great to be back out there and part of it, although not fully."To be honest, I don't feel too far off the pace. I have worked unbelievably hard with Maxie and the stuff I have done with him has obviously stood me in good stead."I have had a couple of really good weeks of fitness work."Wotton is still reluctant to put a timescale on when he could be ready to make his comeback, but it does not seem to be too far away.He said: "Maxie and I have spoken about having between a week or two of non-contact."Then I would like to maybe get another couple of weeks of full contact in and then it's just gearing up towards a reserve team game, or a behind closed doors one."Maxie and I will have to see how many of those games I need before I can say to the gaffer (Ian Holloway) I'm ready for the first team."But I can definitely see light at the end of the tunnel now."Wotton added: "It seems like forever since I last played a game, but I have recovered very quickly."Some people think all I had done was an ACL reconstruction, but I didn't."I tore my medial ligament as well and my cartilage had to be repaired as well."It's 26 weeks after the operation so, in terms of what I'm doing now, it's phenomenal really."It has been, and still is, a long, hard slog and I'm going to have to do leg weights and stuff for the rest of my career, but that's a very small price to pay."