Manchester United ace breaks silence after Birmingham City return

Tahith Chong has spoken about the ‘tough’ journey he has been on since he was struck down by injury.

The Manchester United youngster was playing well and fully integrated into the Birmingham City side when his season was interrupted.

That was four months ago when a freak training ground incident saw him damage a thigh and require surgery.

It has taken him most of the season to get back and his appearance off the bench in Blues’ 2-0 loss to Huddersfield Town was his first since October.

He has now featured twice for the Under 23s – and scored in the 4-2 win over Middlesbrough on Sunday – and is set to make a full return to action.

But he says it has been a long road to recovery.

“It is very difficult, from the start when I got in the staff, the players, the fans just welcomed me and I felt so, so welcome at the club,” Chong told Blues TV.

“When you feel welcome you want to give your all to the club and to just go out with an injury from nowhere really was tough.

“Even back home I was watching all the games and stuff and it’s tough sometimes because you want to be on the pitch, every footballer wants to be on the pitch.

“Credit to United, credit to the staff here and my parents, after that, just to sit through it and grind it out, hopefully this is just the start of building up again.”

Manager Lee Bowyer, who drove to watch Chong’s first game back – in the Premier League 2 fixture at Southampton, is delighted to have the 22-year-old available again.

But he has urged caution.” We all have to be patient with him, it was good to see him out there, it is going to take a while to get Tahith back to the position he was before the injury.

“Like I said he was a bit rusty, you see he got caught a couple of times. They [Chong