Mike Williamson eyes up Christmas return to Wolves training

The 33-year-old hasn't kicked a ball in gold and black since moving from Newcastle for £200,000 last January.

He has been sidelined with an unusual hamstring tendon injury. After trying a variety of methods to cure the problem, Wolves sent Williamson for surgery in August.

And the club's medical chief Phil Hayward – who again reiterated that Williamson's long-term absence couldn't have been foreseen when he joined the club on a permanent deal after impressing during a five-game loan spell – hopes Williamson's problems will soon be at an end, with a possible return to training in six weeks' time.

"I'd expect to see him back in training at Christmas time," Hayward told the Express & Star. "It's early days but he's progressing nicely.

"We tried for a long time, pretty much from January until the summer, to settle down the hamstring tendon problem he'd been struggling with. Unfortunately it wasn't responding well to conservative management.

"Because of that we took him for a surgical opinion and he had surgery. It's always the last resort and something you try to avoid, but we'd tried everything else and it wasn't working.

"He had the surgery three months ago and is rehabbing really well. He's back outside doing conditioning work and also in the gym.

"It's been incredibly frustrating for everyone concerned."

Williamson was first sidelined last December – a week after Newcastle had recalled him from a successful Wolves loan spell – with a hamstring injury.

He signed for Wolves in late January and is out of contract at the end of this season.

Hayward added: "He passed every test in the medical so there was no question of any issues there.

"Looking back perhaps the problem was he'd been out for a period of time with his hamstring, and it was then his change in load when he started training that set the tendon off.

"But at the time it certainly couldn't have been foreseen.

"We've had issues with tendon before but I can't remember one like this with a hamstring tendon – they're quite uncommon in footballers. Track and field athletes would be more susceptible."

The hope is that the surgery has now cured the problem – but that won't be known until Williamson returns to training.

"You'd hope the surgery will have solved the problem it set out to resolve," Hayward added.

"But then there are potential complications after the surgery with things like scar tissue and nerves around that hamstring area.

"We're not out of the woods yet.

"The initial problem should have been sorted – we'll find out when we get towards him training whether everything else in that area is as it should be in terms of him being able to function at the level of an elite footballer."