Injured keeper Simon Royce has warned Alan Julian that he’s determined to come back and regain his shirt.

Royce (pictured) is currently nursing a series of injuries following a car crash but he is focusing on a return and insists he’ll come back fitter and stronger.

A knee injury is Royce’s biggest problem, aside from neck and back bruising, and he’s targeting a mid-January return.

He said: "At my age it can sometimes take a bit longer to heal but I’m not finished yet and I’ll come back stronger. You haven’t seen the last of me yet.

"He’s (Julian) waited a long time to play and he’s a nice lad. He’ll take his chance and once I’m back I’m going to be the one who has to try and get him out of the team. I’ll just have to come back and train harder."

Royce was a passenger in his daughter’s car earlier this month and his knee took the brunt of the impact. It was the same knee that had been reconstructed earlier in his career, a process that kept him out for 14 months.

The 38-year-old initially feared that he could have inflamed that old injury but thankfully it was just a low grade tear.

"That was my main worry but that’s fine," said Royce, who is now spending time between sessions with a chiropractor and the club physiotherapist, on the treadmill and exercise bike at home.