Svensson's return to Saints starting eleven back in August was the culmination of a titanic battle with his own body that began back in March 2004 before a match against Pompey...

"I pulled my calf in the warm-up and then was out for a few weeks," he explained. "Then I jarred my knee in training and felt a sharp pain. I thought I'd be out for another couple of weeks, but it turned into a couple of years!

"I had a lot of rehab and went back to Sweden to a clinic in Stockholm that the national team use. I was selected to go to Euro 2004 in Portugal with Sweden, but my knee still didn't feel right so I had to withdraw from the squad.

"Then I had an operation on 1st June and the doctor was happy with things, but it didn't get better and the pain got worse until we decided to have another operation in August.

"That was when we discovered the damage to my cartilage and was yet another set back in the big Swede's recovery.

Svensson's only child, Lukas was born in same week that his initial injury occurred and the Swede revealed that his desire to prove to his son that his father really was a footballer was a key factor that spurred him on.

Killer blow - Svensson suffers another set-back in his long battle to regain full fitness.

"He was born in the same week that I first got injured in the warm-up against Pompey when I pulled my calf and this hell started.

"I just wanted to play football again and I never gave up the belief that I could get back. I never wanted to give up because I thought I would regret it later on, and that kept me going.

"In 2005 I played 10 games, but my knee was still playing up and I needed another operation that December.

"Then I went to see a doctor in London in March 2007 and he advised me to undergo reconstruction of my posterior cruciate ligament and cartilage transplant. He said it would give me a fifty-fifty chance of playing again, and that was good enough for me.

"He said I would need another 18 months rehab, which is a long time, but I decided to give it a go because that was really my last chance.

"It was really important for me for my son to see me play football instead of just hobbling around on crutches.

"He was too young to remember when I came back in briefly 2005 but he saw me leading out the mascot against Cardiff and said he wanted to do that too! That was very emotional for me."

"It took five operations and an years of rehab but it was worth it, even if it was just for that."

FANS' VIEW: Send us YOUR tributes to Michael Svensson. What are your finest 'Killer' moments...? Email your messages to programme@saintsfc.co.uk and we'll publish as many of them as we can! Please include your full name & location.