Daisy Hill’s assistant manager Jack Iley has set a twin target of making a playing comeback, alongside building experience in his first managerial role, in the remaining months of the current season.

The Daisy midfielder sustained a serious injury in a Bolton Hospital Cup tie against Tempest United last April, when he ruptured his ACL and sustained a hairline fracture to his knee.

With the knowledge he would be unable to play for a lengthy period, Iley joined the Daisy coaching staff at the start of the season, before moving into the assistant manager role in October alongside manager Lee Hill.

On the playing side, Iley has now started light training, and after recently getting back on the training pitch for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in August, he says all is progressing well.

“The initial diagnosis was it would be about nine-12 months after the injury before I could start playing, and in my latest visit to the physio, he said I am probably about three months away now, although that’s a bit open ended,” he explained.

“In early December, I was able to start very light running and do some non-contact work with the ball in training. Prior to that it was just mobility work and weight training, so with the injury happening towards the end of April it was a long time to go without any running.

“I’m seeing the physio again next week, and hopefully that will see me progress onto turning a bit more and some sideways movement. I’ve also been involved a bit in training drills and helping with warm up before games, so it’s been nice to get a ball at my feet again in the last month or so.

“As yet I don’t have a timeframe for starting full training and contact work, but the one target I have is that I will maybe be available for this year’s Hospital Cup at the end of the season, but that will only be if I am 100 per cent and there’s no risk. Otherwise I’ll just get ready for pre-season training and the new season in summer.”

Meanwhile, Lostock native Jack is enjoying his first move into management, although he admits it has come a bit earlier than he might have expected.

“Coaching was always something I thought I would get involved with when I finished playing, but I didn’t expect the chance to come when I was only 27 or 28,” he added.

“When the injury happened, although I was waiting for the diagnosis, it was obvious I’d be out for a while, and when I spoke to Lee about it, he suggested I should get involved in the coaching at Daisy this season.

“It was a no-brainer for me as it was something I’d thought about after I had hung the boots up, so it was a nice little opportunity for me to sample it and see if I would like to do it in future.”

It was also a logical move for someone who has an impressive footballing pedigree, with Jack’s father Steve having been involved in local football for many years in various roles, and his grandfather Jim enjoyed a career spanning more than 30 years as a player and manager in the Football League.

Jim Iley’s playing career ran for 20 years, and he made almost 550 first-team appearances for Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest, Peterborough United and, most notably, Newcastle United, where he made 232 appearances between 1962 and 1969.

His managerial career began when he took charge of Peterborough United as player-manager, before occupying the manager’s seat at Barnsley, Blackburn Rovers, and latterly at Bury, where he was in charge between 1980 and 1984.

Jack explained: “My grandad played more than 500 league games which is some going, and my dad obviously grew up watching my grandad, and got a lot of his football experience from him.

“My dad used to coach some of my kids teams when I was growing up, then he moved to Tempest United, and later to Daisy Hill in coaching roles. He’s been in and around local football for a long time, so I guess moving into coaching and management is a natural path for me to follow.

“The part that has come pretty naturally to me is the coaching, as I’ve been playing football for a long time, and I’ve been involved in enough training sessions at a good level to know how they should run and how they should be.

“The more difficult part was that I have got a lot of friends in the changing room, and I had to change my relationship with them a little bit, in that you have to be perceived as the assistant manager of the team and there are certain ways you can and can’t act when dealing with players.

“So that has been a bit more difficult, when making the shift from player to coach and then into the assistant manager role.

“There have been a couple of tough conversations with players, but the way I have tried to look at it is to think how I would like to be treated as a player.

“If there was a tough decision to be made, I would always prefer a manager to be up front and honest with me, and that is how I have tried to approach any conversations like that, relying on my past experiences with managers where I’ve either appreciated or not liked the way they went about things.

“When it comes to decision-making during the games, Lee and I are on the same page with a lot of things which helps, we trust one another’s ability and football knowledge to make the right decisions at the right times. Lee has been in management a lot longer than me, so it’s a confidence booster for me to see that we can work well together.

“I stepped up to senior football at the age of about 15-16 when I went to Tempest United, and since then I’ve tried to build an image of a manager or coach that I would like to be in future, taking bits from each manager I’ve had along the way and take into the way I would want to approach different situations”.

Meanwhile, as he continues to make progress on a return to playing, Iley and manager Lee Hill are focused on ensuring the Daisy squad build on the recent good form they have shown.

“We’ve not spoken about targets too much in depth but at the start of the season the aim was to beat last season’s points tally, and we have just about beaten that already,” he said.

“The next target would probably be an ambitious one and try and get as close to the best points total the club has had. That will be difficult, but those are the kind of targets we want to set ourselves now.

“We have a really strong squad and we believe it’s good enough to push boundaries this season and into next season.”

And will it be a playing squad that Jack Iley will be able to force himself into next season?

He added: “That’s a tough one! Obviously a lot of the lads are friends of mine, but it is something I want to do, fight my way back into the team.

“There will be no doubt be conversations in the next few months with Lee and where he sees me fitting into the team, and as part of the management team - and hopefully both.”