Gaetan Bong has thanked his Albion bosses for making him wait for his comeback.

The popular defender has returned to the side after three months battling a knee problem.

He believes the fact he did not need to rush back into action underlines why the club are going up this year.

Bong wanted to push himself back into the side earlier than Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Birmingham, in which he appeared for the first time since success at Fulham on January 2.

He has also admitted he should probably have sat that Craven Cottage game out after taking a whack days earlier.

Now Bong is back, competing with Sebastien Pocognoli for the left-back berth while Bruno mans the right and Liam Rosenior offers a high degree of insurance on either side of the back four.

He reckons those riches of personnel have stood Albion in good stead, just as having five centre-backs on the staff has proved crucial in the last week.

Bong, in his first interview for several months, told The Argus: “My injury wasn’t so bad. Last year I had surgery and came back and I fought.

“This time someone kicked me and I had a haematoma.

“I had to wait for the haematoma to go away and it was a long wait. I could train but I needed to be careful.

The Argus:

“The last game was at Fulham (pictued above) but I got the kick during the game before (at home to QPR).

“Fulham was coming and I wanted to play but maybe I needed to rest. But I played – it’s football!”

Bong was willing to play and, at the time, both Pocognoli and Rosenior were unavailable.

Sam Adekugbe filled in for the next league game, at Preston, before Pocognoli returned to face Sheffield Wednesday, the first of nine successive starts.

A substitute outing by Fikayo Tomori against Newcastle bridged the gap until Rosenior’s return at Nottingham Forest. Now all five of them are fit and available.

Bong said: “It was on the knee I had the impact. I had the haematoma inside and I had some fluid.

“The problem when you have fluid is you can’t control it, you just need to wait until the fluid has gone. Now it has gone.”

The injury became something of a saga with Chris Hughton often saying Bong was almost ready – but the comeback never actually happening.

Bong laughed and said: “It’s Chris! I think he wants to protect me as well.

“He knew I wanted to come back but he gave me more time to come back strong, to not take a risk.

“It is important. I could have come back earlier but it’s dangerous.

“If you have fluid inside you never know what can happen. He wanted to protect me and the team.

The Argus:

Sebastien Pocognoli has done well at left-back

“The player (Pocognoli) was doing well and this has given me time to rest and come back strong.

“I can just say thank you to the physio and everyone because they did a great job. The doc, the physio give me the best. We give everything on the pitch and sometimes things happen.”

Which is where the strength in depth comes in.

Albion basically ran out of players right at the end of last season.

This time they have had a fair few things thrown at them and the back four has been constantly changing.

But, though there have been a few away slip-ups in recent weeks, they have also extended their clean sheet tally to 20 and remain well placed.

The latest unexpected twist was the sickness which forced Lewis Dunk off after half an hour against Birmingham.

Connor Goldson is obviously a long-term absentee and it is not clear how much longer Shane Duffy faces on the sidelines.

Bong said: “We saw Dunky on Tuesday, he wasn’t good. But we had another player (Tomori) who could go on and he gave everything.

“I think this is what we have this season – more players and good players. We are stronger. We had good players last year.

“We had disappointment but everyone came back stronger because we missed something.

“Now we have more experience and everyone wanted to go again, everyone wanted to give more.

“We are more strong than last year as a squad.”

For someone who does very little media work, Bong enjoyed it on Tuesday night.

Long after the stands of the Amex had emptied, he held court with four locally-based reporters, laughing and joking at times and speaking in a relaxed and open manner about the past, present – and a bit about his future.

“I’m a free agent, mate!” he said when asked about what the summer could hold.

“I’m just hoping to do what I like to do. I know Chris and everyone here knows I’m serious.

“I don’t know about next season. Only God knows. But I’m here, I’m happy here and we will see what happens.”