Ward ready to play through the pain

Wolves left-back Stephen Ward has declared himself ready to play through the pain barrier with his knee injury.

Ward couldn't train last week until Saturday because of swelling in the knee operated on in August and had to have an injection to relieve the discomfort in the countdown to Sunday's 2-1 defeat at Birmingham.

The swelling is caused by general post-operation soreness and is common practice.

But the 24-year-old Dubliner, who could be in line for his first Republic of Ireland international call-up this month, wants to play through the irritation.

He said: "I've been playing with a swollen knee, so I just needed an injection to help with the healing process. I had the injection last week after it was sore during the week and it was alright for the 90 minutes on Sunday.

"I don't need an operation or anything like that – it just took a while for the swelling to go down.

"The swelling has gone down a bit now which is nice and I felt good against Birmingham."

But Ward wasn't injured by the ugly-looking tackle by Roger Johnson that earned the Blues defender a booking.

The Wolves man said: "It was just one of those tackles that you expect in this league, but you just dust yourself off and get on with it."