International duty is fitness bonus for Dave Edwards

May 15 2008 By Paul Berry

WOLVES’ midfielder Dave Edwards is relishing the chance to build up his match fitness on international duty as he keeps fingers crossed for an injury-free first full Molineux season.

Edwards’ made a promising start after joining Wolves from Luton in January before picking up a groin injury at Preston, and then agonisingly suffered a knee problem in the early minutes of his return against Ipswich which ultimately finished his season.

Thus he is delighted to be in the Welsh under-21 squad with Wayne Hennessey for tonight’s tussle with England, as well as the senior set-up for the forthcoming friendlies with Iceland and Holland.

“It will be good for me because my match fitness isn’t there after missing pretty much the last six weeks of the season,” said Edwards.

“It will be nice to keep me ticking over until next season which I’m already really looking forward to.

“Hopefully I’ll play in the under-21s tonight and then be involved in some capacity in the full games as well.

“Fitness-wise I feel good and I haven’t lost too much because I’m naturally a fit person and always do quite a lot on my Cardio Vascular work.

“And I feel a lot sharper having got back from the groin injury because that had been nagging me a little bit.

“The knee is just disappointing because we couldn’t really put our finger on what the problem was, it was very frustrating.

“It seems to have gone now and touch wood it won’t come back and I do feel very sharp now.

“If pushed and if needed I could possibly have played against Plymouth but obviously the gaffer had great resources with Karl Henry back.

“I’d come through a couple of hard training sessions alright and was hopefully trying to get fit for the play-offs which unfortunately didn’t happen.”

Edwards admits to frustration from a stop-start opening to his Wolves career, but is keen to look forward with anticipation at what is in store.

“ It was very frustrating but hopefully that’s all out of the way now.

“I’ve never been an injury-prone person, these have been my first real injuries so hopefully next season I can get back in the team and kick on.”