Michael Kightly's friend indeed

At least there is some good news for Wolves winger Michael Kightly this week.

The big so-and-so isn't aro-und any longer to chuck him in the ice bath.

But you suspect Wolves injury-plagued winger would love to have his gym companion of the last 10 months Matt Murray around to help him through the arduous battle he still faces to regain a fitness level good enough for Premier League football.

Murray, of course, has had to give up on his quest to turn that enormous talent into a sustained professional career after finally accepting a knee problem was not going to go away.

News of the 29-year-old's departure from mainstream life at Molineux has been greeted by sadness by not just Wolves fans but Midlands football followers who recognise a champion when they see one.

But Murray will be around to check on Kightly's progress as he slowly comes to terms with the end of his personal quest for fitness and ready to provide important moral support for a colleague and friend with whom he can fully empathise.

He said: "Michael knows I think the world of him and I was excited as anyone watching him take the club by storm when he first came.

"The fans took to him straight away and rightly so. He was a massive influence then and when we had the promotion season but it's been a bit stop-start for him since.

"But I feel for him. I know what he is going through.

"You do feel totally embarrassed and even a little bit ashamed when you're desperate to get back and trying and trying and then something else knocks you back.

"You feel so bad, like you're letting everyone down. Kites has felt all that and he's doing everything he can and the medical staff we have got at the club now couldn't be better."

Murray is confident Wolves will one day have their winger back but knows the frustration that is eating at Kightly at the moment.

He explains: "The thing with 'Kites,' the reason why he's finding it so frustrating, is that he can't put his finger on what the problem is now. He's going for the scans and they aren't showing anything as being wrong.

"That is what he is finding so frustrating. With me it was always straight forward - I did my cruciate, the scans showed it. I did my shoulder, the scan showed it. I broke my foot - again, it was all there on the scan. I knew what I was dealing with and what I had to do to get better.

"But for some reason, the scans at the moment aren't telling him what the problem is. He will have to push any negative thoughts to the back of his mind and he will do. He'll get there.

"But we've grown close and had an awful lot of 'play-fights.' He loves to cheek me - they don't all do but Kites is full of cheek.

"So he has visited the swimming pool and the ice bath fully clothed on more than one occasion!"

Murray appears to be handling well the end of his dreams with Wolves but then has always been one of the game's more rounded indviduals.

Perhaps that springs from his life experiences so far. Adopted at birth by white "parents" and brought up in Solihull, he admits to never overcoming the sense of rejection and believes that to be at the heart of his need to "get on with everyone I meet."

Murray has never forgotten, too, the anguish of his much-loved half-brother Ben, adopted by the same couple, being out of contact for two weeks while in Indonesia as the world struggled to take in the enormity of the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami.

He said: "I remember standing here during the minute's silence held for the victims at the next game. I prayed to God and whispered 'I will never play for Wolves again if it means Ben being safe.'

"Of course, he phoned a couple of days later."

Was this God calling in on the 'deal' then?

Murray retorts: "Maybe. Maybe."

The point being that Murray knows he has much to look forward to with his partner Chloe and daughters Taliya and Imogen with a career in coaching the first and most obvious path to tread.

The media?

He said: "Not yet - I don't think I have done enough to start talking about other players."

But Murray is wholly qualified to comment on his team-mates and, with Kightly's predicament following on so swiftly after his own retirement, he is clearly going to be there for his pal if and when required.

He said: "The more games you miss, the more concerned you become. But he won't get any better help than he is getting now.

"It's funny isn't it? If you had asked Wolves fans of the two players from the Championship winning team who they would have tipped to make an impact in the Premier League it would probably have been Kites and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

"Sylvan had his problems last year but look at him flying now. Kites needs to remember that.

"His time will come again, I'm sure of that."

By Martin Swain