Craig Mahon is set to hand Chester a major fitness boost and believes he is fit enough to push for a start next weekend.

The popular 28-year-old is into his fifth campaign with the Blues, but has been ruled out since the beginning of October, after cracking a bone in his foot against Woking and has since missed two months of action.

Chester remain in the National League’s bottom four and face a crucial period in their next four matches – three of which are at the Deva – and midfielder Mahon is hoping he will be considered for selection to face Solihull Moors on Saturday.

“I’m back training for the past week, I’m not quite at the intensity to be starting games but I’m doing all the running and I’m ready to hit the ground running this week,” he said.

“I want to start against Solihull, that’s all I’m focused on.

“I’ve spent enough time on the sidelines now, and I’ve not rushed back, ensured it’s fully healed so I can try and force my way into the team from the off.

“I've kept myself fit since I’ve been out, so I feel like I’m ready if and when the gaffer feels he wants to put me back in the team. Even if it’s just for 60 minutes against Solihull, I’m raring to go and I want to get back into the side to help the team try and climb the table.

“Even if it’s just a half, I’m ready to answer the call and I will always give 100 per cent. I love this club and everytime I pull on the jersey, I’ll give it everything.”

The Dublin-born winger revealed he’d sustained the break initially during last season, but had played on with it untroubled prior to taking a nasty knock in the 20th minute of the 2-0 home defeat against Woking, just Marcus Bignot’s second game at the helm.

“I got a blow to my foot against Woking which forced me off. I woke up the next day and I couldn’t walk on it, so I went to A&E and they told me I’d got a little break in my foot.

“I went for a scan to determine whether I’d done it beforehand or whether it was against Woking, but they reckoned I’d actually cracked it last season and had just been playing on with it since.

“The bang on it against Woking had just made it worse.

“I missed so much of last season that I wasn’t prepared to risk missing loads of time out again, especially given where we are in the league.

“It’s meant missing a couple of months to get it right, but I feel fit now and I don’t want to miss any more games, starting with Solihull.

“I hope the gaffer knows what I can offer, he’s seen a week of me and hopefully the other lads have told him what I can bring.”

Bignot’s side have produced some much-improved performances in recent weeks, including valuable draws on the road at Bromley and Leyton Orient, although Mahon believes a win at Brisbane Road would have put the Blues in a much better frame of mind going into their clash with Dagenham, where they suffered a 4-0 hammering.

“I think everybody can see there’s been some positive displays in recent weeks,” he said.

“Unfortunately we’re just not picking up the points that I feel we’ve deserved from some of those performances.

“Orient was one where we could have got the three points, there’s a missed penalty in there and we’ve only come away with a point.

“If we win there, the whole mindset changes going into the weekend and we’d have been in a better position to climb the table.

“I just feel if we can get a couple of wins, starting with Solihull, in a row then we could get ourselves back up to a safer place.”