Lee Brown: I couldn't kick a ball without pain and was unable to run - now I'll show my Portsmouth best

Now Pompey’s left-back is finally ready to produce top form after requesting to go under the surgeon’s knife.

An Achilles problem had dogged Brown since the end of last season, ultimately ruling him out of the first leg of the League One play-offs at Sunderland.

Despite subsequent rest and rehab, the ex-Bristol Rovers man remained in pain and performing at ‘70 per cent’.

It prompted Brown to have an operation on the problematic area in December.

And at the end of last month he signalled a first-team return against MK Dons and Rochdale.

The 29-year-old said: ‘I had to have my operation, there was no two ways about it, I’d been suffering for such a long time.

‘As a player you would never stop playing if it hadn't been impacting upon you – and I was playing at 70 per cent.

‘I couldn’t kick the ball without it hurting, couldn’t run, so for any player to say “I need this operation”, it must have been bad. For me it got to that point.

‘I’ve had it for 10 months, easily, since the back end of last season. I had tried numerous injections and it got to the point where they weren’t even touching it and I wasn’t doing myself justice, wasn't doing the team justice.

‘It came to the point where I had to stop.

‘I was carrying it into the play-offs, you’re trying to get to the end of the season, you don’t want to let anyone down. It got to the point where sometimes you have to take a step back and think of the team.

‘It needed to be removed. Hopefully I can now kick on.’

Brown has made 70 appearances since arrival as Jackett’s first-choice left back in the summer of 2018.

But now he has added competition in the impressive Steve Seddon.

He added: ‘It's a squad game, I have been lucky enough to get promoted a couple of times and have never done it with just 11 players.

‘Credit to the manager, he’s formed a good squad with players who can slip straight into any position.’