Cole missed the final four months of the 2008-09 season with anterior cruciate ligament damage and suffered a setback in his recovery programme when he required surgery on a meniscus tear which forced him out of the club's pre-season tour of the United States and made him a major doubt for the start of the new season.

The 27-year-old ruptured the cruciate ligament in the FA Cup third-round replay at Southend in January and fought a long and gruelling battle to be fit prior to the more minor setback earlier this month.

Cole spent much of his rehabilitation period in isolation - working hard in the gym on building up the muscles around his damaged knee.

It is an often lonely process for a footballer as the rest of the first team continue with their season.

There is nothing worse than having to watch from the sidelines and being unable to help the squad.

But Cole has been encouraged by what he has seen already around the training ground at Cobham to be full of optimism for the new campaign.

"Everyone is fresh and you can see the lads bouncing around and it's good to welcome the new players in," he said.

'We've made two good young signings in Daniel Sturridge and Ross Turnbull, and Yuri Zhirkov has given us all sorts of problems, we know what he can do, but it's great to see some English players.

"Not just on the pitch but off the pitch, they are so important for us this year."

Cole was forced to miss Chelsea's FA Cup triumph over Everton at Wembley in May as well as England's World Cup qualifiers in June.

His club and international careers have been on hold for months and although the former West Ham midfielder is desperate to get back into action, he refuses to set a target for his comeback.

"The main thing for me is last season I started with niggles and my natural way was to keep trying and wanting to help the lads, but I never got myself fit," he admitted.

"In the end the knee went so I learned a lesson from that and play games when I feel strong and ready.

"There is no rush, as far as I am concerned Chelsea don't want me at 50, 60%, it does nobody any favours, they want me at 100%, so I will come back when I come back and take every day as it comes.

"You want to play games, I don't know when I will be back doing that but it will be great to see the lads settling in, and maybe more players to come in before then.

"The way I see it is when I get injured then I come back stronger. I'm coming into my peak years. The next five years will be the best years of my career so I want to get myself bullet-proof.

"Being an injured Chelsea player is probably the second-best job in the world behind being a Chelsea player.

"But the fans want to see me playing well; they don't pay their money to see me running around on one leg."