Micah Richards is confident that he will be back in action for the Blues before the end of the season.

The 19-year-old defender was sidelined for around six weeks after having an operation on ligaments in his right knee at the end of last month, and he says that he already feels much the better for it.

“I’d been feeling it for about a month, and the knee would keep swelling up after games. They have gone in and literally shaved around the cartilage in there, taken a bit out and it feels good now.

“I wanted to get to the end of the season before having an operation, but the physios said it was wiser to get it done now. If I had carried on it could have come back further down the line, we didn’t want that to happen so it’s better to have it done now.”

Micah’s 2006/07 campaign ended prematurely through a shin complaint known as compartment syndrome, so with this in mind he is philosophical over the latest injury.

“Every footballer gets injured, it comes as part of the job,” he declares. “You could feel sorry for yourself but I’ve got confidence in my ability, so when I’m back up and running there’s no reason why I can’t get back into the team.

“If we count forward six weeks from the operation, then there could be four or five games left so I’ll be trying to get back for the end of the season. If I can play at 100%, then I want to play.

“No player likes to be injured, I’d like to be playing and it does get you down when you miss games, especially big ones. I’ll just have to get on with it.”

Micah was speaking exclusively to MCFCTV.com, click here to see & hear more from him.