Barry Hayles is hopeful he can soon put his injury hell behind him as he targets a return to the Fulham first time after picking up an ankle injury on international duty.
The experienced frontman, who only scored a single league goal last season, looked rejuvenated when he starred as Chris Coleman’s lone striker during the London derby win at Tottenham at the end of his last month. Hayles’ injury blow with Jamaica was untimely just as he was looking to establish himself as an alternative option to Louis Saha up front – but he told the club’s official website that a return to action isn’t too far away.
“It’s coming on. The most important thing at the moment is to get rid of the swelling so we’re halfway there. Obviously I’m very disappointed after missing most of last season. It’s very frustrating. It’ll be treatment every day to get the swelling down first of all, then we’ll look at the internal damage which they class as grade two – so it’s not that bad. It’ll be another couple of weeks from the Birmingham game.”
Hayles was delighted with his brace at White Hart Lane – especially after growing up as a Spurs supporter.
Yeah I was quite pleased with it! It was good day. We worked hard prior to the game. The gaffer had us watching a video of the Everton game. It was quite intense!! We went through everything in detail just to see exactly where we were going wrong. And I think the benefits of that showed against Spurs. It’s probably the highlight of my Fulham career so far.”
He feels as though Chris Coleman’s new system plays perfectly into his strengths.
“Yeah, it did. It’s my natural game really. I can hold the ball up quite well so it suited me. I haven’t played it before at Fulham, but I did occasionally at Bristol Rovers.”
