The striker suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury during Palace's play-off semi-final clash with Brighton and Hove Albion in May and missed their promotion to the Premier League.

Ian Holloway has recruited Cameron Jerome, Marouane Chamakh, Stephen Dobbie and Dwight Gayle to try and fill the void left by his star forward.

Yet Palace have found the net only five times in their opening seven matches, so the return of Murray - who scored 31 goals last season - would represent a welcome lift for the club's supporters.

"I'm on track - not ahead or behind," Murray told South London Press. "I'm doing straight line stuff and next will be twisting and turning.

"After that you’re looking at deeper squats and doing things with more weight involved, extra impact going through the knee.

"December is the aim but there are a lot of ifs and buts. You never know because I haven’t done any strenuous exercise for four-and-a-half months - that will be almost six by December.

"So it is how your body reacts as well. Things can go wrong - I might get a tweak or a hamstring.

"It has been pretty bad sitting and watching Palace in the Premier League but it is something I came to terms with pretty quickly over the summer period.

"I knew I was going to be out for a long, long time. Obviously it would be nice to be out there helping the boys - but it is nice to see them out there in the Premier League.

"I can’t wait to get fully fit and then try and help the team out."

Murray was not named in the club's 25-man Premier League squad but Holloway has already stated the 30-year-old will be included when the registration window opens again in January.