Staying in bed all day is not everything it's cracked up to be.

Just ask Eddie Johnson.

The City midfielder was confined to barracks after being laid low by sciatica.

There is no obvious treatment for a back problem like that other than complete rest so Johnson was ordered to stay put under the duvet.

Sounds great, eh? But a non-stop diet of day-time TV soon changed his mind.

"It got very, very boring," Johnson admitted. "I had about three or four weeks in bed and I did get fed up with it.

"You think to yourself that you wouldn't mind a day off like that. But when you're stuck in bed for so long it's not nice!

"Unfortunately, there's nothing you can really do with a bad back other than let it settle down by resting. But I couldn't wait to get up and about again."

It has been a real frustration for Johnson, who had been enjoying his longest spell in the side.

Having made the conversion from striker to centre midfield, he had nailed down a regular role and was beginning to look the part with spectacular long-range goals in successive matches against Wrexham and Barnet.

But the problem with his back wouldn't go away and he knew that something had to be done.

"It was coming on for four or five weeks and just getting gradually worse. I'd seen all sorts of people, different chiropractors and doctors and trying different things. But nothing was working until we tried the injection.

"If that hadn't worked then I'd have needed an operation which would have been another six to eight weeks. I don't think the injection itself is great for you but thankfully it seems to have done the trick."

Johnson got the all-clear to resume training a fortnight ago and played his first reserve game back at Shrewsbury last week.

With another outing at home to Huddersfield's second string tomorrow afternoon, he hopes it won't be too long before he can push his first-team claims once again.

Johnson added: "Obviously I lost a bit of fitness because I couldn't do anything for quite a while so I'm still trying to get that back. But it's just nice to be involved again and I enjoyed playing that first game.

"It took me 20 minutes or so to get into it but the gaffer said I looked stronger in the second half. That's a good sign and if I can get as many minutes as I can from playing games then we'll see what the manager thinks. I'd started all 17 games before I was injured and I'd like to get back into that sort of run. But it just takes some time."

Johnson should eventually return to a side that are edging their way back up the table. It has not been the season that City had hoped for but he can see some more positive signs from recent performances.

"We were all a bit shocked at the league when we first started. Not many of the players had been in this division before and that might have been a cause for the slow start we made.

"But I think we're finding our way now. We're picking up points and not losing as many as we were earlier on.

"We've noticed in this league that you win a couple and really start moving up. We've got a couple of games in hand on one or two people so we'll see what happens but we are improving.

"Our most important goal is getting the home form right. You see the crowds we get here and obviously teams love coming to a stadium of this size compared to some of the others in the league.

"It's their big day out and they do put a lot into it. But it's up to us to hold our own against that.

"It's a difficult division and the standard is not much different from last year. It is more physical but I think the lads have got used to that and you can see the difference in the last few weeks."