Marc Albrighton is relishing a return to action after revealing how he trained on his broken foot for a week before realising the extent of his injury.

Albrighton resumed training on Sunday after missing the first month of the season and is aiming to return to contention later this month.

The 22-year-old winger admits it has been frustrating watching from the sidelines after suffering the setback in the first week of pre-season.

“I have been out for three months,” he said. “It’s dragged out like it’s been years.

“But then you see Gary Gardner coming in with a cruciate injury and it puts it into perspective. It opens your eyes. It’s a setback, a little knock in reality, and nothing to get too down about.

“I ran down the line, went to pass the ball and change direction and ended up with a stress fracture in my foot.

“I trained on it for a week because I didn’t know I had done anything. It kept getting worse each day and when I went for a scan it came back that I had a stress fracture. It was a shock.”

Albrighton is making good progress and the home match against West Brom on September 30 is a realistic target.

“It’s going well,” he added. “I started training on Sunday and I did some more on Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll have a couple of weeks to get sharp and then I can get going again.

“I have been doing full training with the group. I have had a few sessions with the fitness coach and the physios previously and it went fine. Touch wood, I’m back now. It’s a dream come true to be back.

“Watching the lads over the last couple of games has been fantastic, but there’s nothing like getting a kit on and going out to play.”