THE injury nightmare is nearly over for Newport County AFC defender Andrew Hughes but he’s been warned that the toughest part of his recovery is yet to come, writes Andrew Penman.

Hughes has been sidelined since last December when he suffered major cruciate ligament damage in his knee.

The 23-year-old, the only remaining member of County’s 2013 promotion-winning squad, Tweeted this week to say that he was back in full contact training for the first time.

Butcher is delighted to welcome back Hughes but he knows from experience that there is still a lot of hard work for the player to do.

“He Tweeted that he’s back this week and if he was to Tweet again now he’d be saying ‘I’m knackered’ more than anything else,” said the Exiles boss.

“I said to him that this final bit of his rehab is always the hardest bit because you think you’re there and you know deep down that you’re not.

“You’ve got to do the hard work, not so much the running side or the twisting and turning but the recovery as well.

“When you are fit you can recover so much quicker but when you’re not it just takes an age to recover and you can’t go again.

“But he’s coming through really well,” he added.

“I’ve been there before with broken legs and you know that you’re close but you’re not that close.

“But he will get there and at the moment we’re just delighted to have him back training.”

Hughes is still some weeks away from being ready to play a competitive game but Butcher is pleased that his injury worries seem to be easing.

“With Matt Taylor training as well we have that voice of experience and we have new players coming in too,” he said.

“We just need to get Nathan Ralph back now. He’s been up at St George’s Park for two weeks and we’re optimistic that he will be back in training next week as well.

“We are getting there and the competition for places is getting better.

“It’s not been a big group of players to train but the bigger the better and the more players you have the more competition because everyone wants to play.”