Reid back sooner than expected

West Bromwich midfielder Steven Reid is still hopeful of being involved in his side’s Premier League clash with Wigan on Tuesday.

Reid had knee surgery after injuring himself in the club’s 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United on New Year’s Day.

But the 29-year-old has surprised many with his recovery and is already back in training, with the goal of playing when Wigan visit The Hawthorns next week.

“I’m hoping to get back into full training at the weekend if I do enough with the physios over the next few days,” Reid told the club’s official website.

“I need to be in full training then if I’m to have half a chance of being involved against Wigan.”

“Hopefully, I’ll be involved, touch wood. But I don’t want to push it too much as I only had surgery two-and-a-half weeks ago.”

“It still needs to settle down a little bit. Fingers crossed I’ll be back out there in the next couple of weeks.”

Reid was disappointed when he injured himself in the match, having suffered an injury-riddled last few seasons.

The timing of the injury was also poor, given the fact that Reid had just won a starting place in the side, but despite pre-surgery nerves, everything has turned out well for the former Blackburn player.

“I felt pretty comfortable in the United game. I’d not started a league game for four or five weeks before that. Sometimes it does take a little while to get back into it, but I felt really good.”

“I was hoping for a little run in the team but, as luck would have it, I picked up that injury and it set me back a little bit. I feared the worst but it wasn’t too painful the next day and there wasn’t much swelling on it.”

“I was a bit nervous going back under the knife. But it was good news and just a little trim of the cartilage.”

Reid also believes his side can avoid relegation, citing the maturity and characters within the squad as a reason as to why they will stay up, as well as mentioning the loyal home support the club gets at The Hawthorns.