July 3 2002

Crystal Palace

Kit Symons returned with the rest of the Palace squad for pre-season training after finally recovering from a six-month injury lay-off.

Symons had to go off injured against Coventry back in January and had only played a handful of games since his move from Fulham in December.

He told the official site: "I feel pretty good at the minute. I'm back in full training with the lads now, still feeling a little bit stiff, but that's something I'm going to have to work through.

"The injury couldn't have come at a worse time for me. It was by far the worst I've had in my footballing career, and to come at a time where I've just settled into a new club, and really started to enjoy myself was a major blow.

"But I had a couple of operations in the summer so hopefully now that will be the end of my problems and fingers crossed it will all be 100 per cent for the start of the season.

"I'm back in full training now and I'm doing everything that the rest of the lads are doing and I feel okay, so I think I’ll be ready to play next week."