Schumacher closing in on Stevenage first team return

While Stevenage were hitting four goals past MK Dons on Saturday, one player was sat on the sidelines longing to be part of the action.

Steven Schumacher is about three weeks away from some match action behind closed doors following his rehabilitation after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament back in November.

But despite missing out on the club’s pre-season games the 32-year-old says he has been impressed with what he has seen so far this summer from his team-mates.

“We’re looking quite good with the hard work that we’ve done over pre-season,” Schumacher told the Comet.

“We look organised and well-drilled.

“[The MK Dons win] was a good performance. You go into work every day and work hard and you try to put in a performance over the weekend.

“The result will give us a bit of confidence but it doesn’t mean that we will go and have an easy result against Crewe.

“It’s the performance which is most important and the pre-season performances, if you compare them to last season’s, it’s like chalk and cheese.

“We’ll now try to get off to a decent start [this weekend] and get some good early form.”

Talking about his own recovery and summer, Schumacher added: “It’s been frustrating but I’m not far off.

“It’s been a long, hard summer and a lot of work has been done.

“I had a little break for about 10 days, but apart from that I’ve been working hard.

“I’m almost there. I’m filtering in with the main group and hope to do some more training with them.

“I’ll have maybe two or three weeks’ solid training with them before I can get a reserve team game. I can’t wait.”