Pre-season isn't a time of year that many footballers enjoy - running, running and more running.

But for Oxford United's young centre back Luke Bennett, he's just happy to be back after a two-year nightmare that threatened his career.

Some players never get over a cruciate ligaments injury in their knee, so Bennett, from Abingdon, has shown outstanding resolve to keep on fighting after two major operations to rebuild the same right knee.

The 19-year-old recalled: "It's been horrible. I did it the first time and then came back and felt good last pre-season, then went over on it again. It was heart- breaking to think I had to go through it all again.

"I did it first in a reserve game against Ipswich, when we lost 9-0. I just went over and the physio, Neil Sullivan, said straight away: "I think it's the cruciate".

"I had the scan and then the operation.

"Ten months after, I came back in pre-season and it was that first practice game at Bisham Abbey, against Bristol Rovers.

"I went over on it, there was a similar sort of sensation, but I didn't want to accept that it could be the same thing.

"When the scan revealed it was the cruciate again and the surgeon would have to reconstruct it again - and take a different part of my tendon - I couldn't believe it."

What followed was a long, hard road to recovery.

"Just going up to Milton, and seeing all the lads training and not being able to get involved, and having to go to the gym, was horrible," he said.

"But I blinkered out everything as much as I could.

"I was just trying to concentrate on that one little light at the end of the tunnel and that one thought that one day I might be able to play - that was what got me through really.

"Some days I woke up and thought 'is this time now for me to pack up?' and my friends, family - not to mention the physios Charlie Greig and Neil Sullivan - would say, 'no, you've got to carry on and fight'."

United boss Darren Patterson says he will do what he can to give the defender some football by loaning him out to a local club.

And the former Fitzharrys School boy can't wait.

"I'm just happy to be back playing football again," he said.

"I'd be happy to go and play for anyone - I'd play for the Under 13s just to get a game again.

"At the end of last season I got back into training and then in that testimonial game at Kettering, I got the last 15 minutes.

"It just felt good to be back on the pitch again."

Bennett, who has been with Oxford United since he was 14, has been given a short-term extension to Christmas, to give him a chance to show what he can do, following his horrific repeat injury.

"Probably the only thing that got me through it was the love of the game and the love of the club . . . just thinking that one day I'll be able to play football again. I can't wait for that day."