Marcus Trescothick has accepted he will have to carefully manage his ankle for the remainder of his career, after recovering from the operation that ruled him out for much of the 2012 season.
The Somerset captain missed almost half of his team's LV= County Championship matches last summer – but has worked hard on his fitness over the winter and is ready to return to action.
Somerset begin their on-field preparations for the new season with a two-day friendly against Worcestershire that begins today at Taunton.
And Trescothick, now 37, said: "The ankle is OK. It's never going to be a case where it will be back to 100 per cent like it was. It was a major injury and it has changed the dynamics of my foot a little bit, which is probably the hardest bit to deal with. I get little niggles along the way and I've got a little bone spur which is just bugging me a little bit here and there. You try to control it as much as you can.
"At some point, I will have to look at how I'm going to approach from there on in. But I am still in good shape, I've worked hard and trained hard over the winter to get my ankle strong, and, hopefully, it holds up as well as I need it to."
Trescothick featured in only nine of Somerset's 16 Championship games last summer, scoring 506 runs at an average of 38.92, while also missing a raft of limited-overs games.
He is about to begin his 21st season as a Somerset player – and said he approaches things no differently now than how he did in 1993.
"After being inside all winter, when you get back outside on the grass, it's always exciting – that doesn't change," he said. "I don't feel as if I approach it any differently now than I have for the last 20-odd years, and I'm excited about getting going."
Somerset will be without Steve Kirby and Pete Trego against Worcestershire, as the duo are in Abu Dhabi. They departed for the United Arab Emirates yesterday, ahead of their involvement in the opening game of the county season – the MCC against county champions Warwickshire, which starts on Sunday.
