GUDNI Bergsson never had any doubt! When he limped out of the Derby game with a painful knee injury, there were fears that the inspirational skipper had kicked his last ball for Wanderers.

But the man who mattered - Bergsson himself - was always confident he would be back to play his part in the survival battle.

"I was a touch worried about the injury but I didn't feel I'd completely done my knee," he explained as he planned a perfectly-timed return against his former club, Spurs, in a fortnight when Sam Allardyce will be without the services of the suspended Kostas Konstantinidis.

"I always kept my hopes high that I would be able to play some part later in the season.

"I actually strained the medial ligament on the inside of the knee. Thank god it didn't tear. It just needed the general four to six weeks or so to recover."

Although not back in full training yet, Bergsson's rehabilitation under the guidance of Wanderers' physio, Mark Taylor, has gone so well that he is confident of being available for the Spurs game.

"Mark's the best phsyio in the land," the veteran defender says with a friendly and well-meant hint of sarcasm. "That's what he keeps telling us anyway.

"But seriously, he is certainly not far off that title. He is very able and with the staff around him all working together, it's going well at the moment."

Allardyce reckons Wanderers have already paid a heavy price for his captain's injury.

Looking back on the Derby game, which ended in a demoralising 3-1 defeat, he highlighted one of the most damaging passages of of play of recent weeks.

"In the space of two minutes, Gudni had a header cleared of the line that would have put us 2-1 up, then limped off," the manager recalls.

"That was a huge turning point."