The 32-year-old damaged knee ligaments in the  at the end of December.
"We're hoping I can feature in the pre-season block of games if all goes well," Sturgess said.
I don't like sitting on the bench behind anybody so I definitely want to be fighting for the position
"I'm 16 weeks post-op and I'm running and doing really good leg weights again and progressing next week to off-line running and upping the load a bit."
Sturgess has had a difficult couple of seasons with injury, having missed a large chunk of the 2012-13 campaign
Next season will be his eighth at Sandy Park after joining Exeter from Connacht in 2007.
"One of the disappointing things about the injury is that I wasn't able to get the starting jersey back.
"You're not guaranteed your place, but after previous seasons you may feel you're going into the next season holding the jersey," he said.
"This season I definitely know I'm going in as second choice and will need a good pre-season and perform in the pre-season games to try to get my place back.
"I don't like sitting on the bench behind anybody so I definitely want to be fighting for the position."

Under council proposals, the 75 schools could have funding taken away for one hour of lunch staff per day, amounting to £2,200 a year each, according to figures obtained by Plaid Cymru.
Plaid said costs could be passed on to parents - which is denied by the council.
Caerphilly said it was one proposal as part of a drive to save £9m in 2016/17.
A spokeswoman said "extensive consultation" had taken place with head teachers, adding: "There is certainly no intention that any financial impact would be passed onto parents, or that the service would cease to be provided by schools."
The Labour-run authority said it was committed to spending an extra £1.9m on county borough schools in 2016.17.
A cabinet report set to be discussed next week says the 75 schools may decide to use their lunch-time supervisor to undertake the cleaning task.
However, if this happened, 75 posts (working on average one hour per day) would be withdrawn in "a worst case scenario".
This would amount to 375 hours of cleaning lost across all schools per week and the work would be shared among the remaining staff.
Plaid Cymru said the proposal would save the council £175,000 a year, which equated to around £2,200 being passed onto each school.
It added that it would be based on how many pupils eat sandwiches.
The party's candidate for Caerphilly in the assembly elections Lindsay Whittle said many parents give their children sandwiches as they cannot afford meals.
"It seems likely that this charge will be passed on to parents by many schools or pupils even banned from bringing lunches in," he added.
But the council's cabinet member for education Rhianon Passmore said the suggestion was "disingenuous and misleading", saying Plaid was "scaremongering".
"Sadly, such claims will undoubtedly cause extra worry and stress for hard pressed parents and their children.  This is wrong," she added.
Exeter prop Brett Sturgess hopes to return to action in time for pre-season as he recovers from knee surgery.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Primary schools in Caerphilly county could lose money for cleaning up after children who bring sandwiches in.