JAKE Smeeton is hopeful he can return to the fold before the end of the season after suffering a bad cut on his foot that required stitches in the Magpies' 3-2 win over Bideford on Easter Monday.

His manager Mark Jermyn previously told Echosport that he feared his captain would be out for the remainder of the campaign, but Smeeton is keen to prove him wrong.

He said: "Personally, I'm hopeful I can return for the last couple of games of the season.

"The swelling is easing up and I want to be off the crutches by next week."

He will report back to hospital on Tuesday to get his four stitches removed and once that is done, he hopes to make a proper assessment.

"Once the stitches are out, I hope to back training within two weeks," he explained.

"The healing process is going relatively well.

"The bruising and swelling are going down, it's just nice not to see the hole in my foot now."

Smeeton was clearing a ball when his foot collided with a Bideford player's studs leaving him with a nasty wound on his lower leg.

"I didn't want to go down," he admitted.

"The pain wasn't too bad, so I tried to walk it off but once the physio came on and rolled my sock down, blood started seeping through and I could see the hole.

"Once I saw that I knew my game was

over."

Despite being on crutches, the 28-year-old is determined to cheer on his Dorchester teammates when they visit lowly Paulton Rovers in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier League today (3pm).

"As the captain, I feel like I should be at every game and I would hope the boys would want me there too," he added.

"We are a close-knit group and although things haven't gone our way all the time this season, we have shown a united front and we want to improve.

"We want to finish this season strong and make sure we kickstart next season."

The laceration to his lower leg capped off an unlucky weekend for the defender after he had spent three-and-a-half hours in A&E on Saturday night having his head glued together after a collision with his own keeper.

"I had a really fun Easter weekend," he quipped.