Mellor happy with bench duty

Last updated : 08 July 2005 By Adam Bryant
"Every time I ran, got out of cars, got out of bed it was constantly hurting so it just needed something to be done about it, which I did," he said.

It's been tough for the young striker to miss out on Liverpool's European Cup success, but he is delighted for his colleagues.

"It's been good to be around the lads when they've achieved such success like the Champions League at the end of the season, but it's been frustrating knowing that I could have been on the bench or appearing in a few of those games," he added.

"But that's how football is. You have many ups and downs and I knew that when I was having the operations so hopefully I can come back stronger now.

"We've got some big reputations in the strikers that we've got, so I can't expect to just walk into the side but to feature on the bench would be an achievement for myself."