HAVING UNDERGONE surgery to sort out a hernia problem last week, Stephen Hunt is confident he will return to action for Wolves before the end of the season and aiming, he says, to play at Euro 2012 rather than merely to make Giovanni Trapattoni’s 23-man squad for the tournament.

“It was a simple hernia operation that was carried out last Thursday week and it went very well,” the midfielder said over the weekend. “I feel the better for it already. I hope to return to training later this week or early next week although I won’t rush back. I reckon I will play two games and maybe even three.

“I will be fine for Poland and Ukraine,” he continued, “and I am generally a fit person. Look at Carlos Tevez right now, he’s not 100 per cent fit but he covers some distance on the pitch. And I’m a lot slimmer than he is!”

Once there, he insists, his intention is to be playing rather than watching from the sidelines. “I am one of those players who believes he should be in the starting 11, never mind the squad.

“I’m not looking at the 23 but the team that plays in every game. It’s nice to have competition and there’s plenty of it with Seamus Coleman, Keith Fahey, Damien Duff and Aiden McGeady and now James McClean who has taken the league by storm this season.”

Hunt acknowledged the impact made by McClean in recent months and expressed the hope that he his progress would be recognised with a call up for the championships but, he insists, the challenge for everyone would be to dislodge a player as important to the Irish cause as Damien Duff.

“He (McClean) has come over from Derry and in the space of a year he’s produced on the big stage so he’ll feel that he deserves his chance like anyone but Damien Duff has been around for 10 years and trying to replace him is a difficult task because he’s a dedicated individual and someone I, Seamus Coleman and Aiden McGeady look up to in terms of what he’s done.”