Source: PA
Byfield: I nearly quit
Walsall striker Darren Byfield feared his troublesome knee injury would force him into retirement as recently as three weeks ago.
The 34-year-old Saddlers skipper is now enthusiastically stepping up his training regime having received a revolutionary three-course treatment of sugar injections which have strengthened his knee.
A now positive Byfield told Press Association Sport: "If I`m being totally honest with you, I actually believed I was going to have to retire it was that bad.
"At the start, if you look back on my Twitter feed I thought I was going to be out for three weeks and it`s now five months later and I`m just coming back. It`s been the worst time of my career because I`ve never been out for so long and it`s been a horrible, horrible time.
"Even three weeks ago, just before the injections, I thought `I`m going to have to retire` because it wasn`t getting any better - I couldn`t run, I couldn`t kick a ball or do anything."
Match fitness is now at the forefront of Byfield`s mind, with substitute roles a definite first step, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. He added: "My fitness levels are ridiculously low, I am struggling when I`m doing these runs. Everyone`s saying it`s going to be a new pre-season but it`s worse than that because you usually have seven-eight weeks off in pre-season but this time I`ve had 24 weeks away."
