Colchester United keeper Sam Walker, who has missed virtually the whole of this season with a serious knee injury, has this week signed a new contract.

Walker is making good progress from a knee operation, which has effectively ruled him out of this term.

The Chelsea trainee’s current contract was set to expire next summer, which would have sparked off fears that he would be on his way to another club.

But instead, Walker has pledged his support to the U’s for another two years, by signing a new deal until the summer of 2018.

“I am absolutely delighted to have secured my future with the club. We’ve been talking for a while and I am really pleased to get it sorted,” enthused Walker.

“I am pleased that I have got a bit of security to come back to after my injury recovery is complete.

“Things are going really well – it’ll be four months on Saturday since the injury and I am doing more and more as the weeks go by.

“I am looking forward to the new year because I’ll be on the home straight then and it won’t be too long until I’m back around it and doing some sort of work on the training ground,” added Walker.

Walker originally injured his knee towards the back-end of last season, but aggravated it during the Capital One Cup tie against Reading during the first week of this campaign.

Ironically, new Colchester boss, Kevin Keen, was the Reading assistant manager that night.