I feel like part of the team now - Crewe's Tabiner

Fit-again Crewe Alexandra midfielder Joel Tabiner says he feels properly part of the team again and wants to get back to playing "with a smile on my face".

Tabiner has been out for a year with a knee injury and is now preparing for his return in pre-season, which starts on Saturday at Whitton Albion.

The 22-year-old said it felt "amazing" to be back after such a long rehabilitation.

"I feel like I've done everything I need to do," he told BBC Radio Stoke.

"I just want to see how I am in a game now because you can't replicate that in training. That's the last thing that I need to tick off.

"I feel like I'm ready to just have a normal pre-season. I just want to get as much out of it as I can so I go into the season feeling 100 per cent."

Tabiner said the long road back to fitness made it hard to feel fully integrated into the first-team squad last season, despite his best efforts to be supportive.

"As much as you try, you just don't feel 100 per cent involved when you're out of the team, especially for the whole season, so I feel like part of the team again now, like I've got a part to play.

"The first few weeks or months was hard to come watch the lads; just not been able to do anything if the result wasn't going our way, or when we were winning, I wasn't there to like celebrate, so I just had to focus on my injury and use that as motivation.

"All year I've been out; I've just been thinking about coming back and just enjoying football.

"It's nice to just be back out there and have a smile on my face."

If selected, Tabiner will play his first competitive game in 16 months in the Alex's first-round Carabao Cup tie against Accrington Stanley on 8 August.

But, having been out for such a long time, he knows he will inevitably have to ease his way back in.

"I don't want to get too excited. I've got to understand that I've been out for a year, so I need to be careful of my body as well," Tabiner said.

"I could get carried away and start playing all the time, every minute, and my body just won't be able to handle it. So I've just got to be patient and know when the time's right to really push myself.

"I want to have a really good season - show how good I am."

With the first game of the League Two season at Crawley a week after the EFL Cup tie, Tabiner said he feels the Railwaymen are not far away from being automatic promotion contenders.

Since relegation from League One five seasons ago, Crewe have reached the play-offs once in their efforts to get back up.

Last term, they were in the shake-up for the top seven but fell away over the last six games and finished 11th.

Returning former captain Luke Offord and Jordan Gibson have bolstered Lee Bell's squad - both described by Tabiner as "really good signings for the league".

"It looks like a pretty open league. I think we've just got to focus on the start, and hopefully a good one will take us into the season. We're always going to be looking at the top end of the table.

"I don't think it's far [automatic promotion]. I feel like the ability we've got is up there."