Stuart Bannigan is targeting a return to the Partick Thistle first-team by the start of next season as he steps up his long rehabilitation from knee surgery.

The Thistle midfielder has been out of action since last March, when he twisted his knee in the Tynecastle turf as he closed down Hearts keeper Neil Alexander.

It has been a hard road back for the 24-year-old, but as he nears a return to full training, he can finally see some light at the end of what has been a long, dark tunnel.

“I’m working towards being back ready for the start of next season, that’s the hope anyway,” Bannigan said.

“That’s me out training every day with the boys. It’s not quite full contact yet, but I’m getting closer and closer.

“Hopefully in the next few weeks I can start participating in full training, but it’s brilliant just to have a ball back at my feet.

“It gets so boring and repetitive in that gym, and you can’t wait to get out there on a pitch and start passing the ball about.

“I know it will be small steps to get back to where I was, but I’m enjoying the process a lot more now.

“Being out for so long, you are always a wee bit wary to begin with.

“It’s basically a brand-new knee that I have, but I will get back to where I was as long I put in the hard work, and it’s feeling a lot better as time goes on.

“If I can maybe get a week of full training under my belt before the end of this campaign then I’ll be full steam ahead and ready to go for pre-season.

“Trying to get games might be an issue with the team obviously not playing, so it will be 16 months I’ll have been out when the games come around.

“It will be a push to get enough game time in to be absolutely 100% ready for the start of the season, but as long as I’m there or thereabouts then I have to be happy with that.

“The League Cup might help me, because I’m a competitive person and that would get me right back into the swing of things.

“It would be great if I was ready and the manager saw those games as a chance to give me a run-out. I’ll be dying to be involved.”

Bannigan has been delighted to see his teammates do as well as they have without him this season, but he admits it is a strange feeling to be watching on from the stands.

“It’s a little bit weird if I’m honest,” he said.

“It’s always difficult when you aren’t playing at any time, and the boys weren’t doing great in terms of results up until Christmas. You are wishing you could do something to help.

“I knew it would turn though because we’ve got a great squad, probably the best since I’ve been here, and then you just want to get out there and share in all the celebrations after the game.

“You can feel like you aren’t really a part of it, but we’ve got a great squad of guys that have always tried to keep me as involved as they can.”

One of the things that has brought Bannigan through his extended period on the sidelines is his positive outlook, and he refuses to look back with any bitterness on the opportunities that were snatched from him by his injury.

Bigger clubs were ready to pounce for the highly-rated midfielder when disaster struck, before he almost found himself without a club at all with his Thistle contract expiring.

“I had a couple of opportunities and they would have been great chances for me, but it obviously wasn’t the right time,” he said.

“I’m so grateful to the club for sticking by me. It would have been far easier for them to cut me loose and I’m so thankful for them for everything they have done.”