DEFENDER Byron Anthony is recovering from his latest operation and will be fit for pre-season with Newport County AFC – if he stays at his hometown club.

The former Wales under-21 international missed the last ten games of the season and went under the knife again last week to ease the pain in the leg he broke at Brighton in August.

But Newport-born Anthony says he should be fully fit in time for pre-season if, as expected, he agrees a new contract with manager Justin Edinburgh.

“When I broke my leg in August I broke the tibia and the fibula,” he said.

“I broke the fibula in two places and one part had a hypertrophic non-union.

“The edge of the bone of the fibula was trying to heal but there was a small gap and that was causing me pain when I got kicked on it or I blocked a shot with it.

“We decided to have a plate fitted on there and a bit of bone grafted from my ankle to hold it together and hopefully it will heal over the summer and I’ll be ready to go in pre-season.

“I’ve got to sit down with the gaffer and have a chat about next year,” he added.

“Hopefully I’ll be here because I’ve enjoyed my time here. It’s a great club and it’s going places.

“We showed that by the start we had this season and even though we didn’t have a great time after Christmas we still picked some good results – like Saturday.

“I’m sure we’ll be looking to add some players to the squad and move forward again next season.

“We can take the positives from what we’ve learned. It’s important that we finished the season right because you always take that momentum into next season.”

While County were beating Rochdale 2-1 at Rodney Parade on Saturday, Anthony saw two of his former clubs relegated – Bristol Rovers into the Conference and Cardiff City back to the Championship.

“Bristol Rovers are a big club and it’s tough for them but they’ll learn from it and I’ve no doubt they’ll bounce back like Luton have done,” he said.

“The same goes for Cardiff. It was a big gamble on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer because he didn’t have any experience of managing in the Premier League.

“They’ve spent a lot of money there and they’re in the Championship now but I’m sure they’ll be looking to win promotion again as quickly as possible.”