FORMER Colchester United midfielder Alan Judge has provided an update on his fitness as he battles back from a serious knee injury.

The 34-year-old, who was released by the U's at the end of last season after two years with the club, has spent the last seven months recovering from the injury.

Judge was invited to continue his comeback by Colchester, after his contract with the club expired.

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And the former Republic of Ireland playmaker says he is getting ready to soon make the step up to working on grass again.

 

Writing on social media, he said: '4 months post op. 7 months in total. Still loads of work to do over the coming months. Getting ready to make that transition from gym to grass soon. ⚽️💪🏻🇮🇪'

Judge underwent a knee operation in March, after suffering a triple rupture in his left knee in the U's defeat at Sutton United, last December.

Judge suffered the injury in the first half of the 1-0 reverse, with the ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament), PCL (Posterior Cruciate Ligament) and MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament) all affected.

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The former Blackburn Rovers and Ipswich Town midfielder revealed in January that he would only require surgery on his ACL - and not his MCL and PCL which he said are healing well.

Judge provided an update on his injury in March, revealing he had undergone surgery on his ACL.

The ex-Plymouth Argyle man, who has made more than 450 league and cup appearances, started his career at Blackburn Rovers.

Gazette:

Judge had two loan spells at Plymouth Argyle before leaving Ewood Park in January 2011 to join Notts County, where he had also spent time on loan earlier in his career.

He left Notts County to re-join Blackburn on a free transfer, penning a three-year deal in the summer of 2013.

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Judge again found games hard to come by at Ewood Park and moved to Brentford on loan in January 2014, playing 22 times before making the move permanent at the end of the 2013-14 season.

The Republic of Ireland international stayed at Griffin Park for five years in total, helping them to win promotion to the Championship in 2014.

Judge moved to Ipswich in January 2019 for an undisclosed fee and made 91 appearances for the Suffolk club in all competitions, scoring eight times before joining Colchester in the summer of 2021.

In total, he made 55 league and cup appearances, during his time at the JobServe Community Stadium.

Speaking in May, following the announcement of their retained list, U's sporting director Dmitri Halajko said: “Alan Judge is very unfortunate as his bad injury has kept him out of the second half of the season.

"However, he is working very hard with our medical team to get back playing. 

"We will still be seeing plenty of him at the club while we help him back to full fitness."