Mark Ellis pleased to be back ahead of schedule
Defender Mark Ellis has praised the work of the club's medical staff for helping him back from injury - and revealed his wife also played a part in his earlier than expected return.The Shrewsbury centre-back picked up a knee problem in the League Cup win over Blackpool in only his second game for the club in August.
Initial fears were that the 25 year old would miss around 5-6 weeks, but the former Crewe man slotted back into the side in Tuesday night's Johnstones Paint Trophy defeat at League One side Preston North End.
"I've got to give credit to the physio Chris Skitt," said Ellis.
"He's worked hard with me. I've been lucky too because my wife is a physiotherapist and I had some acupuncture treatment from her. I feel it works, and I'm a quick healer. It definitely helped me. The original prognosis was 5-6 weeks but the consultant was happy with he saw and he narrowed it down to 2-3 weeks.
"I was enjoying being part of the side and was looking to impress the fans and manager as part of the new team so it was disappointing to pick up a little knock. It would have been nice to have been involved in games like Leicester last week but the lads have done well without me and it's credit to them."
Ellis played the 90 minutes against Preston - Town's first defeat of the season - with the winning goal arriving early in the second half from Deepdale youngster Jordan Hugill.
"I thought we deserved more from the game," he said. "We didn't get going in the first half and said at half time we weren't good enough, and probably showed them too much respect.
"We gave it a go in the second half but it was a poor goal to give away. They didn't really have to work for it, it was just a smack into the box, it fell for the lad and it's gone in the net. The higher up you go, the more those chances are taken. They didn't overly impress us though and there wasn't a massive gulf in quality between the two sides."
The game was Town's eighth in 25 days but Ellis refused to blame fatigue for the defeat.
"I don't think the busy schedule had an impact on our performance," he said. "We've got the players to cope and any team the gaffer puts out, the lads give everything.
We've got 17 news players in and everyone can make a difference."
Town still have the League Cup to focus on with the upcoming visit of Championship side Norwich City in the the third round, but Eliis admitted disappointment at Town's exit from the JPT having enjoyed success in the competition with Crewe.
"We wanted to go all the way," he said. "I've been to Wembley before and won it, and wanted to do it again at Shrewsbury. It's a fantastic day out. The league is more important than any cup competition, so we need to keep plugging away. There's a long way to go, but if we keep picking up points in the league, we'll be fine."