WATFORD midfielder Sean Murray hopes to be fully fit to commence pre-season training with the Hornets.
Murray, capped by the Republic of Ireland at under 21 level, hasn’t played for the Watford first team since November due to a knee injury.
"It's going well," Murray said to www.watfordfc.com about his recovery. “I'm hopefully going to be doing a little bit of running on the pitches, which is the first little bit of good news I've had.
"It's a good chance for me to kick on, and catch up with some of the fitness work I've been missing out on. Even though it'll be pre-season by the time I'm back, I'll be looking forward to it.
"There's still a lot of work to do in the gym, movements I've been struggling with, changing direction. The strength is there now, I just need to get the fitness up.
“It'll be great to eventually kick a ball again and get back training."
Murray reckons he has coped fairly well with the first significant injury setback in his career. "I've had nothing like this before. I've been out for maybe three months, four months. It's not a long-term injury, but that's quite a while.
"It's given me a chance to work on a lot of other things I've needed to improve on. I've done a lot of upper body weights, and I've been getting my body fat down. I'm not the tallest of players and playing in midfield you need to be strong and get about a bit.
"The Championship is a hard league and there's a lot of big guys around. Every little thing that's going to help me go up against them is going to do me good.
"It's been hard not training and watching the boys go out every day, especially with how well they've been doing. It spurs you on though."
Currently top of the Sky Bet Championship with two matches remaining Murray’s competitive return to action could be in the Premier League in August. "When I knew I would be out for the rest of the season, I set my mind to next season," Murray admitted.
"If that means Watford will be in the Premier League, even better. We would be playing against the best teams, the best players, and to have the opportunity to play in that team would be great.
"For me now, I'm being a fan. I'm watching every game and it's been good to watch.
"The squad have got a winning mentality now. Looking at the games from the outside, I feel like they're going to win the game every time they play.
"Obviously there are phases of the game where the other team come into it, but all in all, they look confident, they're playing good football and scoring goals. There's no reason why they can't do it."
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