Wolves FA Cup hero Des Horne returned to the city after more than 40 years this week for an emotional reunion with his daughter and the grand-daughter he has never seen.

South African-born Horne, now 69, is the club’s only player to have FA Youth Cup and FA Cup winner’s medals, in 1958 and 1960 respectively.

Six years later – five of them spent with Blackpool – Horne returned to his home country to play for the Southern Suburbs, and has only seen daughter Nicky twice since then as she returned to England to live with her mother.

He also met his 13-year-old grand-daughter Elle Leak for the first time, the former left winger staying with the family in Finchfield.

“It’s been absolutely fantastic to see them after all this time, and be part of this family again,” said Horne. Elle is beautiful – I think she has my eyes, but I can see she looks a lot like her mum.”

As part of his UK visit, Horne also went to watch his old team beat Fulham 2-1 last Sunday and – after fighting his way through a mob of fans after autographs – was delighted when Wolves clinched their first home victory of the season.

“It was wonderful,” He said. “There is still a lot of pride there so to see them win was just fantastic.” As well as catching up with his family, Horne has also been in touch with his old teammates including Bobby Mason, Barry Stobart and Ted Farmer.

“I went around Molineux with my daughter, grand-daughter and Ted – I call him mega mouth because he never shut up!” said Horne.

He has also paid a visit to Shirley Broadbent, wife of Wolves’ great Peter Broadbent, who is suffering from Alzeimer’s Disease.

He added: “It has been really nice to catch up with old friends – we were like a family back then and to speak with them has been great.”