Wolves midfielder Dave Edwards has declared himself ready to return to first-team action this Saturday.

The Wales international came through his first 90 minutes in over three months in last night’s 1-0 reserves’ defeat to Birmingham at St Andrew’s, after recovering from his ankle injury that has kept him out since December 12.

Edwards is now looking toward playing a part in the weekend Molineux clash against Everton.

He said: “Playing these two reserve games, I think I’m back to 100 per cent now and hopefully if I work hard in training, I can convince the manager to get me back in the team somewhere along the line.

“I’m not in contention for tonight having played 90 minutes last night, but hopefully I can look forward to Saturday. I feel really good and I felt really fit as well, which is really good.

“I spoke to the manager when I came back from my injury and he just said he wanted me 100 per cent fit, he didn’t want me going back in at 60-70 per cent because that’s no good for the team really.”

Looking on from the sidelines, Edwards has seen his team-mates grow in confidence as they have found their Premier League feet.

And the 24-year-old is in no doubt Wolves will survive the drop this season.

He said: “We’ve got a great chance – the players are definitely good enough to stay in the Premier League, and over the last six or seven weeks, the lads have put in some really good performances.

“Luckily in the last couple of games, we’ve had some good results as well. There are a lot of teams in the Premier League who we’re better than and we’ve just got to prove that on the pitch.”

Fellow midfielder Karl Henry believes much of the credit for Wolves’ recent improvement should go to manager Mick McCarthy and assistant boss Terry Connor for making the team more resilient in their 4-5-1 formation.

The captain said: “Full marks to the gaffer because the formation has worked. Our tactics have been spot-on – Villa changed their formation on Saturday in the same way they changed their system at our place.

“It was the same at Burnley – we knew it wasn’t going to be a pretty game because the pitch wasn’t great for getting the ball down and passing it.

“A lot of thought goes into it and the gaffer and TC are very clever tactically. We don’t just turn up on a Saturday and see what happens, there’s no stone left unturned and nothing is left to chance in our preparation.

“We have to give the gaffer and TC full credit. A lot of people have put in a shift and I’ve got every confidence in us staying up this season.”