Tommy Elphick has been told to take the weight off his feet as pre-season gathers pace.

But the fit-again central defender is on course to feature in Albion’s friendlies.

Elphick will be in the thick of it when pre-season training kicks off in earnest on Monday.

But the centre-back who suffered a ruptured Achilles just 40 minutes from the end of the 2010-11 season will do his running in a newly-installed anti-gravity treadmill at The Amex.

His Achilles has healed but Albion’s medical team, headed by Nathan Ring and Dr Helge Riepenhof, are keen to avoid any other problems.

He is doing his running with the force of impact reduced by an anti-gravity mechanism while team mates pound the firm pitches outside.

Elphick told The Argus last night: “The anti-gravity running is not because of the Achilles.

“Anybody coming back from time away to do the amount of running we are doing would be sore.

“This is just to reduce that soreness, which might set me back a bit or affect me psychologically when we get the balls out.

“The machine takes 10-15% off my body weight and makes it a bit easier.

“It makes sense. But I did nearly everything with the lads last week apart from a short cross country.”

Elphick is likely to be left out of the opening pre-season friendly, on an artificial surface at Maidstone’s new stadium on July 14.

He said: “I think I will be kept out of that game and I might not be the only one.

“But there are a lot of friendlies to look forward to.

“I’m not setting targets, There’s a difference between being back in training and having your timing and rhythm back for matches. But I was doing 95% of the stuff with the other boys last week to a good level.”with the other boys last week to a good level.”