Jamar Loza believes his ankle injury goes back six years.

The Maidstone striker is recovering from an ankle operation that is expected to keep him out for about four months.

Loza says he’s already a couple of weeks ahead of schedule and should be running soon as he works his way back to fitness.

It took weeks to get to the bottom of the problem with X-rays showing bone growth in his ankle and lower leg, thought to be caused by an old injury.

Loza, 23, said: “It was probably about six years ago when I did my ankle ligaments at Norwich.

“I don’t think it recovered properly and I had bone building up in my leg from then and it’s just been growing to the point where I couldn’t run any more, so I had to get the bone shaved down.

“The pain has been there for a little while but I’ve always been able to manage it and play with it but time was always going to catch up with me.

“I’m glad it’s done now and I can go forward.”

Loza finished top scorer with 10 goals last year and rejected Football League offers to stay at Maidstone.

He was excited about the new season but began to struggle midway through the summer.

He said: “I didn’t realise it was as bad as it was because I could still run, I could still do a lot of things, I just couldn’t sprint.

“But the more I kept trying to sprint, the worse it would get so when I came back for pre-season I thought it might be a case of leaving it a few weeks and it would be all right.

“But it still wasn’t right so I went for a few scans and in the end we found out what the problem was.”

Loza has enjoyed watching his replacement, Zavon Hines, tormenting defences and feels Maidstone will have a good season.

He said: “He looks really good, lively, a similar player to myself.

“I think that’s what we were missing so I’m glad they’ve got him in. I’ll be looking forward to playing with him."