Liam Delap says Manchester City have put a focus on preventing long-term issues from his injury problems this season, delaying his return to action.
Delap missed pre-season the start of the campaign with an ankle injury, making a scoring comeback in September for the under-23s.
However, he soon suffered a knock to the same ankle, and was out for another month. After 45 minutes in the EFL Trophy defeat at Rotherham, Delap hasn't been seen in action since as City decided to give the injury all the time it needed to heal properly and attempt to prevent the same problem from causing any lasting damage.
Delap returned to training before the winter break, and is aiming to step up his recovery by featuring for the under-23s in the coming weeks.
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk