Elliot Bradbrook is feeling the strain as he continues his recovery from a nasty injury.

The Dartford captain thought he’d broken his ankle when he had to be stretchered off on the opening day of the season.

Bradbrook ended up only missing four games and he’s now back in the team but is having to work doubly hard to get himself through.

He said: "I’m playing catch-up at the moment. I’m two or three weeks behind the rest of the lads who have got some games in.

"I had a good pre-season and felt really fit going into that first game. I scored and things were going well but then all of a sudden, that happens and you do fear the worst.

"I’ve done serious damage to my ankles before and that felt like it. When it went, I felt like I’d broken my ankle, it was that bad but once I got off and calmed down, I could see the bone wasn’t sticking out of my leg.

"I was still out for three-and-a-half weeks but it wasn’t as serious as I thought it was."

Bradbrook admitted playing 90 minutes twice in four days this week was hard although he managed to score a late winner against Welling on Tuesday night.

"I was blowing a bit," he said. "I felt tight and sore at half-time after playing the whole game on Saturday.

"It takes it out of you. You can’t be making all those runs when you’re not as fit as you can be but luckily I got in there when it mattered.

"It’s difficult because we’ve got so many games and we’re not training much. I had a couple of games last weekend where I came on for 20 minutes and then did a half.

"To do 90 minutes on Saturday and Tuesday, it’s tough. But it’s in the bank and in three or four more games’ time, I’ll feel fine.

"We knew Welling was going to be a tough game.

"They grew into the game and there wasn’t much between the teams but luckily we got that goal to seal it for us."