Swansea City defender Alan Tate is determined to win back his place in the starting lineup after making a full recovery from injury.
The 30-year-old missed a majority of the Swans' Premier League campaign in 2011-12 after breaking his leg in a golf buggy accident.
"It has been a long time but what happened in between was a freak accident and when I got back into training it took me a while to get anywhere near match fitness, but now I am," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News.
"Pre-season helped, I went away at the end of the season and trained all the way through and it helped everything to heal.
"I went to the gym here every day and trained every day on holiday and it's all you can do. I had a lot of time off during the season so I wanted to give myself the best chance of playing as many games as possible."
Swansea are at Aston Villa for their fourth Premier League clash of the season on Saturday, and Tate hopes to start the match.
"If I start on Saturday, it will have been worth it," he said.
"I have started this season on the bench after the manager (Michael Laudrup) brought in Chico, which I understand as I was not fit last season and he needed another option.
"But hopefully if I play well I expect to stay in the side like anybody else."
Swansea are currently second in the Premier League table with seven points from three matches, just two points behind leaders Chelsea.
