Jamie McCombe believes he is improving all the time on his road to recovery from a broken cheekbone.

The big defender has missed the last seven weeks of first team action after fracturing his cheekbone in three places following a collision with Derby County defender Claude Davis in August.

Jamie came through 90 minutes of a friendly this week, and is pencilled in to play again in next week's Totesport.com Combination match against Salisbury City at Ashton Gate.

Speaking to bcfc.co.uk, Jamie said: "It's been a while since I last played so the reserve match (on Wednesday) was good for my fitness.

"I trained all last week and have been testing my heading with (assistant manager) Keith Millen.

"The cheek feels fine. There will be little bits that can become sore, but I've had the all-clear from the surgeon and it should be fully healed with the metal plate.

"I've done plenty of running since I've been out, but I've missed out on the contact stuff and now it's just a matter of getting my match sharpness back.

"You can do as much running as you like, but it doesn't sharpen you up for games. Reserves game help and it's coming along every day.

"I've sat it out for seven weeks and now I'm desperate to get back in and play again.

"It's been tough watching games and you just wish you could be out there, but that's football and you have to take the rough with the smooth.

"I'm set to play in the reserve game (versus Salisbury) next week and that'll give me some more minutes of match practice. It's looking good and everything's improving all the time."