KAIYNE Woolery has lifted the lid on his injury torment after an operation on his knee left him learning to walk again.

The striker signed for Swindon Town last summer for a reported fee of £350,000 from Wigan Athletic.

After plenty of excitement, the 23-year-old notched on his debut, scoring against Exeter City at the Energy Check County Ground.

From here, expectations were sky-high, but Woolery was unable to fill them.

Manager David Flitcroft elected to play the striker in a wide berth, and he ended his season with a disappointing tally of five goals from 43 appearances.

A knee injury in the summer then provided a further setback. An operation and four months later, Woolery was ready to play a part in a competitive fixture as he came off the bench to score in Tuesday night’s 3-0 win over Plymouth Argyle.

Speaking ahead of Swindon’s trip to Exeter City on Saturday, the striker revealed his struggle.

“Tuesday was brilliant. To come back into the mix of things and get a goal, I couldn’t be happier for myself,” he said.

“It’s been a long four months and I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Over the summer I had to have an operation on my knee because I tore my meniscus.

“I was in a brace for six weeks and when I came out of the brace, I couldn’t really move my leg.

“I forgot how to walk, I had to learn to to that again and I’d lost all the muscle in my leg.

“It was frustrating really. I put in a lot of hard hours to do double sessions everyday but I’m happy that we have finally got through it.

“I wasn’t allowed to put pressure on my right leg because I was on crutches.

“When I came off the brace and the crutches, I wasn’t confident enough to put any pressure on my leg.

“When I was walking I was doing baby steps, it took me a while.”

Woolery was thrown into the game in the 62nd minute at Home Park and while he admits it was a struggle, he says he was elated to be back on the pitch - his first outing for Town since Saturday, April 28.

“I was very happy with my performance. I was blowing after about five minutes,” he said.

“It was just good to be involved in things and the goal topped it off.

“Hopefully that is the start of a good run for me. I’m more than happy to just be in the squad, so if I’m on the bench or playing then that is a bonus.

“As long as we keep winning I don’t mind.

“I have been running for about seven weeks, but I have been training for about three.

“I’ve only done one session on shape and that was on Monday, because I wasn’t allowed to do 11v11 before that.

“Exeter treated me well last year (scoring both home and away) so hopefully I can get on and I can get another one to help the team.”