LUKE Summerfield is delighted to be on the road to recovery – having spent a month being unable to walk for any longer than five minutes.

The York City midfielder was so debilitated by the severe delayed concussion he suffered at Notts County in September that he could also only sleep when sat upright.

But the Devon-born, 27-year-old’s condition has improved to such an extent in recent weeks that the specialist appointment he had been due to attend at the end of the year – three months on from his injury at Meadow Lane – has been brought forward a fortnight.

Summerfield will then learn whether he has medical permission to resume his City career, and that will be a huge relief for the ex-Plymouth and Shrewsbury playmaker, who returned to non-contract training last week.

“I’d never heard of delayed concussion and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody because I was in a bad, bad way for four or five weeks,” Summerfield revealed. “I’d had concussion before as a youth-team player and was back within two weeks but I’ve never felt as worse with something for such a long time as this.

“It took me four weeks to drive and a long time to even lie down in bed. I was sleeping sat up because I was getting head rushes and my eyes were bad as well.

“It took a long, long time for me to look normal again and the lads didn’t enjoy seeing me like that. I tried to go to a few games but didn’t feel myself and, if I tried to go for a five-minute walk, I’d be shattered and my head was banging.

“I had literally shaken my head and my body had shut down and couldn’t deal with anything.”

Now it's important that Summerfield avoids the temptation to resume playing prematurely.

He added: “I’ll have to be patient with my body because I won’t be as fit as I would like to be straight away.

“I can’t over train either because I’ve gone long periods without training and I’ve got to look after my body. We’ve got a long second half of the season ahead of us which is really important and I want to be fit for all of it.

“I want to be straight back in contention but I don’t want to rush back and make things harder for myself and the squad.”