OSEI Sankofa is confident of returning to action in just six weeks time.

The Southend United defender was originally expected to miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

But he has responded well to treatment and hopes to avoid an extended spell on the sidelines.

“I think it’s realistic that I could be back playing in six weeks,” said Sankofa who can play at both right back and centre back.

“My knee has calmed down quite a lot already and I’ve started my rehab which involves me trying to strengthen the areas around my knee.”

Sankofa had been playing with the injury for quite some time. He has no idea of when the problem first occurred.

“I don’t know how or where I did it but my knee was hurting a bit,” said the 24-year-old.

“We were playing Tuesday Saturday Tuesday for a few weeks and I was just waiting for a gap in the fixtures to tell the physios it was hurting. That’s what I did and I ended up going for a scan which showed up the problem.”

The scan and subsequent report suggested Sankofa would be facing months on the treatment table.

But the specialist disagreed and now so does the former Charlton Athletic defender.

“There was quite a big difference between the two but I think the report from the scan was a bit hasty,” said Sankofa.

With Jean Yves M’Voto also out with a hip problem Blues have a shortage of defenders.

Anthony Grant played as an emergency centre-back against Bristol Rovers last weekend and he is again expected to be part of the back four at Carlisle United on Saturday.