Although Craig McAllister joined in Sutton United’s title winning celebrations, the striker can only look back on last season with frustration – and he is desperately hoping history will not repeat itself.

The 36-year-old made just 19 league appearances last season before a knee injury sustained in a win at Chelmsford City in February.

He would not pull on a boot in anger again until the pre-season friendly against Fulham after finally completing his rehabilitation.

However, in the warm-up to last week’s Portsmouth match, McAllister pick up a thigh injury, forcing him to miss Wednesday night’s draw at Kingstonian.

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Although he reckons the injury will not keep him out for more than a week, it served as a reminder to last year’s disappointment.

He said: “I tweaked my thigh on Saturday in the warm up by over-stretching.

“It is one of those things when you come back from an injury that you do something else, but it is nothing too serious so about another week.”

He added: “Before pre-season, I felt good and had trained every session and played in the second half against Fulham.

“So I would be disappointed if I did not take part in any games before the season, because you need to, every player needs to.

“There are plenty of games to go, but I don’t want to pick up another niggle, so it has got to be right.”

McAllister and the United back-room staff initially thought he would only miss a few weeks of last season, but it turned out to be much longer.

“I could be partly to blame for the injury I got last season, because it was me making a block tackle that caused it. I won’t be doing that again,” he said.

“We thought we were looking at six to eight weeks, and it turned out to be five months.

“It was the worst injury of my career, and I cannot afford to have that again this season, just from a personal perspective.”

He added: “It has been a frustrating time, and I was not too sure how I was going to come back from it, but it is fine now, and I was feeling fit up until last week.

“I am not overly worried about my thigh because I am generally fit anyway, I just need to make sure I give it the right time to heal.”