The following is a message from Dean Ashton on his diary at icons.com:

Thanks for all your kind messages

I would like to say thank you to everyone that has sent me e-mails wishing me well, it is great to hear from you and your messages have been very kind.

It has been almost a month now since I broke my ankle. I had to have surgery on it and the bone was fixed back into place with two screws. I'm happy to say that the worst is over and it is feeling a lot better; my ankle is now in a lightweight cast and I can move it around quite a bit. It isn't painful any more either, which is the main thing! Now I am just waiting for the cast to come off and to see how it's doing, then I'll have a better idea of my recovery time.

Waiting can be very frustrating. It isn’t the overall picture that is the bad thing – the fact that I can't play. I can handle that, just about…It is more the human, personal things that get so testing. It is easy to accept that breaking bones can be part of football but when you are at home, trying to get around, and can't do the things you would normally do on a daily basis, that’s when it gets really hard.

I am trying to stay positive through it all though, there are times when I get a bit down but mainly I am doing pretty good and trying to keep myself busy. I'm not sure how long it is going to take to heal, it was originally said it would take about four months but no-one can be sure. It would be great if it is better in four months, but you never know how long these things can take, so if it is a bit longer then I'll just have to wait.

It might be hard for some people to watch football when they are out with an injury, that's easily understandable, but I don’t mind it all. I like to watch the team and see how they're getting on and see how my team-mates are doing. I like watching football in general so it doesn’t bother me. I have been watching everything – England, West Ham and all the clubs I used to play for. I can't do much at the moment, so sitting in and watching the match on TV has been happening quite a bit!

When I was leaving the England squad Steve McClaren looked upset for me and said some nice things which was good to hear; it is really important to read positive comments about yourself, but my England debut wasn’t to be and that’s that. Alan Pardew and some of my team-mates were ringing me up too and visiting to see how I was doing, but when you get injured you are put on the back burner. Football doesn’t stop for you, that’s just the way it is.

It looks like Bobby Zamora has started the season really well, which isn’t a surprise considering how good he looked in pre-season and how hard he always works. He and West Ham are both looking good; I'm pleased that they are doing so well. When I am back fit I will be one of six strikers and there will definitely be competition to play but when you get to this level the competition is what gets the best out of you - you either want to rise to that challenge or you don't.

There has been so much in the news about West Ham's transfer dealings but I really don’t know too much about our new signings Tevez and Mascherano. I have never really seen them play, even in the World Cup. Playing with them is the last thing on my mind, it's impossible to think about playing again at all at the moment. I just want to concentrate on my recovery.

I will let you know how my ankle is doing and keep you updated about all my progress here.