Kightly eyes a January return

The 23-year-old had his operation five days ago and has started his rehabilitation with a view to being back in contention early in the new year.

Kightly was injured stretching for the ball in a clash with Barry Ferguson in the 1-0 defeat against Birmingham 10 days ago.

He said: "The operation was one of the most minor you can have and went really well. Hopefully I could be running by Christmas and then fully fit again at some point during January.

"If I can get fully fit, hopefully I'll be able to help the team and play more Premier League football. It feels like I haven't had that chance to be at my best yet and that's frustrating and disappointing."

Despite the absence of up to two months, Kightly revealed the injury could have been much more serious.

He said: "I went to see the foot surgeon and he said I could have dislocated my foot and also my knee as well. When you hear that, it puts everything into perspective and you realise it could have been something really bad.

"When I saw the footage of the incident I was pretty pleased it wasn't a lot worse. The day after it happened I went for a scan and I was pretty down and disappointed to be honest. I thought I'd be out for a while."