Not for the first time in his Barrow AFC career, Jason Taylor has quickly returned to playing after suffering what was a painful injury, only he didn't find out the extent of his latest one for several days.

Almost precisely a year ago, Taylor had four of his teeth knocked out after taking an elbow to the face against Maidstone United. He was back in action just two weeks later.

Fast forward 11 months and the 32-year-old midfielder was forced off the field towards the end of the Bluebirds' 1-0 win against Sutton United following a clash of heads.

Due to the numbness to the right hand side of his face, it was only when he went to hospital for an x-ray the following week that he found out he had, in fact, two fractures to his cheekbone and one to his eye socket.

Taylor said: "I didn't find out they were fractured until four days after. My face is still numb now and they've said that may not come back until they've fully healed.

"I went for a precautionary x-ray on the Tuesday after the game on Saturday and I was still feeling groggy and getting headaches.

"I had the x-ray and they came back casually and just said I've got three fractures, which I wasn't best pleased about, initially."

Fortunately, none of the bones had been dislodged, meaning Taylor didn't need to undergo any operations to repair the damage.

Instead, it was just three weeks until he was back on the pitch when he came on as a substitute against Barnet a fortnight ago, complete with a protective mask that he will have to play in for another eight weeks at least.

It was a swift return to action for AFC's player of last season, especially as he'd barely trained prior to then.

"Obviously, I just wanted to get back playing as quickly as I could. It was frustrating and, to be honest, I've barely trained in the last five weeks. I didn't train until the day before the Barnet game, which was my first session in three weeks and I've not really trained much since.

"We didn't have too many sessions because we played last Tuesday [against Chorley], then had a down day on the Thursday and a light session before Maidenhead."

During Taylor's time out, Barrow brought another midfielder into their ranks, with Tom White coming in on loan from Blackburn and the extra competition in the middle of the park has been welcomed.

Taylor said: "Tom has come in and he's done brilliantly since he's come in, to be fair. I've been really impressed with him and he brings good competition for the team.

"We knew he was a good player from coming up against him last season. He's a young player and if he knuckles down he's got a bright future ahead of him."