Canaries striker Ashley Barnes will begin his personal pre-season on Monday and is targeting a September return.

Barnes hasn’t kicked a ball in anger since the dismal final game of last season, the 4-0 play-off semi-final defeat at Leeds.

Injections to cure his calf problem failed and Barnes underwent surgery, but says his recovery is ahead of schedule – a major boost for new Norwich City boss Johannes Hoff Thorup.

“It will be four weeks on Tuesday since the operation, but I'm going outside on Monday to start running so I'm already ahead of schedule, although I do have to see the surgeon again to make sure all is okay,” he said.

“Unfortunately, after the Leeds game I had injections to try and help it, but I was one of three per cent that it doesn't work on so I had to go and see the surgeon.”

Barnes’ problem centred on his plantaris, the long, thin muscle that runs along the back of the leg.

“That literally snapped and it was coiled up in in my leg,” explained Barnes. “I could do little things, but every time I tried to open up or sprint or turn direction I would feel a sharp pain in my Achilles and my calf.

“We tried to do everything we could without the operation, but we just had to get that removed. So we're on the road to recovery, hopefully I’ll be back I'd probably say for the September international break, but we're ahead of schedule at the moment.”

Being away from the main group has been difficult for a player who likes to be in the thick of the action on the pitch and in and around the dressing room.

“I don't like being in that treatment room,” he said. “I don't like being left alone on my own. I need to be amongst it, helping the group.”

While City are opening their campaign at promoted Oxford United on Saturday lunchtime, Barnes will be flying solo at the club’s training ground, but he expects the hosts – where he had a short loan spell in 2007 – to be looking for an early scalp.

“It's going to be difficult – they’re obviously a newly-promoted side and they are going to be full of confidence, raring to go in the Championship,” said Barnes. “As a group of players, we need to be switched on from the first whistle. We have to expect all sorts there and we have to give them the respect they deserve after getting promoted.

"But in the same breath we have to make sure we're on it because it's going to be tough and we're learning a new style of play, but we are head and shoulders above them as a club and as a team, but that doesn't always work on paper."