JOSH Sheehan insists Newport County AFC captain Joss Labadie can return fitter and stronger from his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

Sheehan knows exactly what Labadie is going through having ruptured his ACL while on loan at County from Swansea City in March 2017.

The 22-year-old returned to training late last year and made his comeback in January after sealing a permanent switch to Rodney Parade.

Sheehan has had to wait for a regular starting spot but he’s in fine form having scored in successive matches for the Exiles.

He’s convinced that Labadie can follow his example and be back in an amber shirt before the end of the year.

“There’s no doubt whatsoever that he can come back from this,” said Sheehan.

“It’s going to be tough for him because it’s a long time on the sidelines but as soon as he gets his head around the length of it and as long as he keeps positive, like I was, he’ll be fine and he’ll be back before he knows it.

“He’s obviously aiming for September or October but he won’t be rushing back because he’ll know what can happen and he doesn’t want to relapse.

“I don’t think he’ll rush it but you can come back in that time because I did.

“I was back training in seven months. It was 11 months from match to match but that was because I had to wait for January to make the move back here.

“When he’s back on the pitch and training he’ll feel a lot better. He maybe won’t be ready for a game then but that will come in time.”

South Wales Argus:

Labadie (above) is set to have surgery to repair the damage to his knee on Monday and that is the start of what will be an arduous recovery process.

“It’s a massive blow to get that news,” said Sheehan.

“It’s one of the worst injuries you can get but you’ve just got to get over that as fast as you can.

“He’ll have the operation as soon as possible and as soon as you get the operation done it’s a gradual build-up every week.

“You’ve just got to take your time and look forward.

“Timing wise it’s not as bad as it could have been for Labs,” he added.

“It’s more or less the same stage in the season as I did it and if you had to choose a time to do it then it would be now.

“You miss a couple of months of the season and then you’ve got the whole summer to do prehab and then obviously pre-season as well.

“Labs is aiming for October so hopefully he’ll only miss two or three months of the season.

“As long as he works hard and does all his gym to make sure all his muscles around his knee are stronger than they were then he’ll be fine.

“Since I’ve been back I haven’t picked up any injuries. I haven’t missed a training session so he’ll be fine.”

Sheehan is delighted with his current form and targeting a third goal in as many games as County host Crewe Alexandra on Saturday, when tickets cost just £5.

“There was a lot of frustration for me not playing but it’s about timing and my time is now,” added the Llanelli-born midfielder.

“Hopefully I can just keep scoring and keep going to the end of the season and we’ll see where that takes us.

“It’ll be great if we can get a bumper crowd in on Saturday and they can cheer us on to three points as we really go for this last push towards the play-offs.”