Shrewsbury Town

Aaron Wildig is hoping his "nightmare" injury layoff is over, and says he's now focusing on ensuring safety for Shrewsbury Town.

The midfielder made his long awaited comeback on Saturday, playing 23 minutes in the win over Bradford City at the Greenhous Meadow. He followed that by coming off the bench in the goalless draw at Carlisle United on Tuesday, replacing the injured Jermaine Grandison just before half time. 

"I thought I was going to be sick in the last 10 minutes, I couldn't move," he said. "I was gasping towards the end, I was going to ask for the oxygen mask! I've only trained four days in eight weeks so it's a bit like coming back for the first day of pre-season."

If called upon by manager Mike Jackson, Wildig says he'd like the chance to start a match, and his return is a timely one given the injury to fellow midfielder David McAlllister.

"It's been a nightmare," he admitted. "I've had more setbacks in the last eight weeks than in my whole career. You start to think you're fit and it goes again, I've had a lot of headloss. It's tougher at the moment because we're playing Saturday-Tuesday and I've not really trained. It's great to be back out there, but I want to be fully fit. If I do start I know I'd give it everything until I blew up, although if I played 90 minutes I'd probably be in ambulance at the end!"

Wildig also reflected on his second half miss at Brunton Park, Town's best moment of the game, and said he should have put the visitors in front.

"Me and Shaun (Miller) got in each others way for the chance, we've tackled each other," he said. "He's said sorry to me, I've said sorry to him, but I hold my hands up, I should have scored.  Hopefully I'll put it right on Saturday. It does prey on your mind, I'm disappointed. I've been out eight weeks and could have had the opportunity to score a goal."

Wildig, like his manager Jackson, admitted Town were nowhere near their best at Carlisle, and said the gaffer had some strong words for his players at half time.

"We didn't play very well, they had a few good chances and could have won it," he said. "In the end, it's a good point but we've got to play better than that and we know we can." 

"It's only my second time in the dressing room since he got the job and he didn't mince his words, he really got into us. There was a bit of a reaction in the second half, but we still didn't perform how we wanted to. We've got to move on, get a result at Walsall on Saturday, and put things right after the FA Cup defeat there earlier this season."

The result leaves Shrewsbury just a point off safety with seven games to play, and Wildig says the belief remains that Town can escape trouble. Six points separate nine teams at the bottom end of League One. 

"It's tight down there," he said. "We've still got to play Crewe and Stevenage at home and still got to go to Tranmere. It's in our hands. There's belief in the changing room that we can definitely do it. If we can get a few results together, we'll get out of it. Not everyone will do that so we've got to make sure we do."

Wildig also had words of encouragement for fellow injured midfielder Luke Summerfield, who hasn't been able to start a game for Shrewsbury since the win at Oldham on New Years Day. 

"Dave McAllister, Asa Hall and Ryan Woods have also done a good job in there but I'm disappointed for Summers," he said. "He's a great lad, works hard in the gym, but for both off us, it's been a torrid last couple of months."