Ryan makes sacrifices to reclaim his Bristol Rovers shirt

BRISTOL Rovers defender Ryan Green says he is happy to carry on sacrificing his days off if it helps to finally put a nightmare run of injuries behind him.

The right-back has started only three league games in almost a year after being sidelined by a string of problems since suffering a broken jaw last November.

An Achilles tendon injury, which eventually required surgery, then kept him out for the rest of last season.

And his hopes of winning regular football at the start of the current campaign were scuppered by a pre-season hamstring problem, which the Welshman then aggravated in the home game against Crewe in September.

Now Green is in line for a recall when the Pirates visit Bournemouth in the FA Cup on Saturday. And with full-backs David Pipe and Joe Jacobson expected to be out of action for the next couple of weeks, he knows it is vital he avoids any further problems.

"I've had so long out it's been an absolute nightmare, but now I want to do all I can to stay fit," said Green.

"I have been doing a lot of extra work. When the other lads have been having a day off, I've been coming in and running with our physio Phil Kite.

"I can't wait to get a start and my main focus now is on staying fit and playing well again.

"Since last season I seem to have been very injury-prone and I don't know why. Having been out for so long, you sometimes get little niggles when you come back – and that's what happened to me with my hamstring.

"Now I come in half- an-hour earlier than the other lads to do strengthening work on my Achilles and my hamstring because I have to be careful with them. It's something I'll continue to do every day."

Green returned to action from the bench in Rovers' 2-1 defeat at Leicester City last weekend as the Pirates suffered a bizarre run of injuries, seeing no less than three full-backs limp off injured during the game.

"All our injuries this season seem to have been to defenders and to lose three full-backs in a game was incredible," said Green.

"We had four different players at left-back during the match and I've never seen anything like that happen before.

"It was a freak game in terms of injuries."

Green's first appearance for Rovers this season came at Dean Court in early September when the Pirates lost to the Cherries in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy for the second year in a row.

"We seem to be drawn against them in just about every cup competition and we will be looking to go there and get our own back on them," he added. "We certainly owe them one."