from the evenin news

 

 

 

RICARDO Vaz Te has vowed to win back the love of Wanderers?supporters and prove his once-promising Premier League career is not over.

 

The Reebok?s forgotten man, still only 22, has played less than three hours of football in the last two seasons after being sidelined by a series of crippling knee injuries.

 

But after undergoing pioneering microfracture surgery last season on damaged knee ligaments, the former Portugal Under-21 international claims there is some light at the end of the tunnel in his latest comeback attempt.

 

?The diagnoses of my injuries were career-ending, which is very scary at my age but it has been addressed well,? he said. ?To look forward to the future is great because it?s quite bright now.

 

?It?s like I have been in the dark for two years and the sun has just started shining.

 

?It?s helped me keep the faith and hopefully I can come back and change people?s minds about me.?

 

Vaz Te is training six days a week with Wanderers physio Nick Worth and his assistant Andy Renshaw, gradually stepping up his workload to meet an August deadline set by his surgeons.

 

It is an all-too-familiar situation for the young striker, who is entering his seventh season in English football.

 

Injuries have checked his progress to the degree that Vaz Te claims supporters have forgotten that he was a part of the Wanderers squad.

 

?For two years people have been asking: Where is Vaz Te? Is he on loan?? he said.

 

?That?s disappointing. They don?t really know what has been going on.

 

?Perhaps they think I?m not good enough, or that I have gone big time, or that I?m a different player than I was three or four years ago in the Sam Allardyce era. That?s not the case ? I have just been unlucky with injuries and I have to deal with that. Everyone is out enjoying their summer now but I am enjoying it here. It has been a while since I did this kind of running and training.

 

?If it gets me back playing, and for the fans to see that I am not dead, I am still here, then I will try my best. Hopefully they will love me more than before.?

 

Vaz Te made only two substitute appearances for the club last season, confessing that he had rushed into a comeback from a serious knee injury sustained on the first day of the 2007-8 campaign against Newcastle United.

 

It is a mistake he is keen not to repeat, and while he is aiming to play a part in the club?s pre-season preparations, Vaz Te is determined to prove his detractors wrong. He said: ?If I get back for the start of pre-season I?d be delighted but I am trying not to put a time on my recovery. That is what I did wrong before, so I am trying to stick to the plan which is nine months ? in August.

 

?If I need a bit of extra time, I will take it. People will appreciate it because I won?t be injured again in three months, which makes people start doubting me, as they are doing right now.

 

?I am only concerned with getting fit and when I do, I can get their love back.?

Nope,you're wrong there.

 

The 7 goals weren't all scored in his 19 starts.

 

hes score 7 goals

 

hes had 19 starts

 

when i were a kid, it was acceptable to describe that thus

 

7 in 19 starts

 

you know, rather than

 

7 goals in 19 starts but 2 were in games when he came on as sub

 

for example