Given preparing for first Upton Park return since horror Harewood clash

The Republic of Ireland star suffered a perforated bowel after a sickening collision with Marlon Harewood and it has taken until now, and an operation in the summer, to fully recover.

‘I always felt I could get back to where I was,’ said Given as he prepared to return to West Ham.

Shay Given suffered a perforated bowel after this collision with Marlon Harewood

‘It’s just the fact that I kept breaking down, that was the hardest thing to get my head round.

‘In hindsight, I probably should have had the operation a year ago or something but I felt I could get away with it or get through it.

But I didn’t and finally had to succumb to the operations.’

Caretaker manager Chris Hughton, who will take control of troubled Newcastle for the second time, added: ‘It was an awful injury, but it’s one of those things that can happen to goalkeepers.

‘They are expected to go for difficult balls. It’s a fact of life.

‘It was like the kind of injury a motorcyclist would suffer and I don’t think anybody grasped the chain of problems he would have coming back from it.’

Damien Duff and Obafemi Martins could dispel some of the doom on Tyneside by returning to action against the Hammers.

Club owner Mike Ashley, however, will not attend.