Darren Byfield almost quit football

Walsall captain Darren Byfield has revealed he almost quit football before he started his road to recovery.

The striker has been sidelined for almost six months since injuring his knee against Swindon in September and thought his career was over.

But the 34-year-old had a series of sugar injections last month in an attempt to solve fix the problem and has started light training again.

It will be several weeks before he plays for the Saddlers, who host Bournemouth tomorrow, again and Byfield admitted he was considering quitting.

He said: "If I am 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 have never been out for so long and it has been a horrible, horrible time.

"Even three weeks ago, just before the injections, I thought 'I am 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."

The veteran, who has made just six appearances this season, is now undergoing a rigorous fitness routine to return to match fitness but is finding it hard.

He said: "My fitness levels are ridiculously low, I am struggling when I am 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 have had 24 weeks away."

Byfield is the only absentee for manager Dean Smith tomorrow and the manager knows he must handle the striker with care.

Smith said: "He's been working very hard and we're hoping it'll be sooner rather than later.

"It's a mini pre-season for him. He needs to get his fitness back and then needs to play minutes in games. We knew it wasn't a quick fix, it was a case of biding the time.

"It's been such a long time we don't want to force him over the line."