Beram Kayal has revealed how he conquered the agony of being out of the Albion team – by reading.

And why getting back to fitness was just the start of his battle against injury blues.

The midfielder is back in action after recovering from a broken leg in the final pre-season friendly of the summer, against Atletico Madrid.

He made a successful and impressively rapid return to fitness as his colleagues kicked off the Premier League season.

His own debut in the elite came at Spurs on Wednesday.

But he has told how the final weeks of his absence were as hard as any – when he was fit enough to train but not getting in the side.

Kayal is full of admiration for the way his midfield colleagues helped Albion go as high as eighth in the table at one stage.

He took to reading motivational material to keep spirits up.

And the chance finally came in midweek – with no reason why he cannot still be in the side today when Burnley visit.

Kayal, who got 75 minutes at Wembley, said: “I have my family around me all the time.

“I was training all week not to play at the weekend but it’s not just me, everyone will say that.

“When you are back from injury, you sometimes think it is going to be easy.

“You get back fit and training and you think you will get your chance straight away.

“It doesn’t work like that. You need to wait for your opportunity and, when it comes, you need to take it.

“For the mental side of it, I read a lot of things, I go back to my own experience.

“I have had a few operations before so I know how to deal with it and to be back and fighting again.

“I read mentality stuff, stuff about never giving up.

“You have two options, one is to fight again for your place or you just leave it.

“I am always choosing the right way.”

But the wait went on for a man who has shone in the Scottish Premier with Celtic and was anxious to prove what he could do in the big league.

He said: “We are in the middle of December and that was my first game in the team.

“Why? A lot of reasons. The team is doing well and you need to wait for your opportunity.

“Last season my opportunity came early and there were a lot of games.

“This season there aren’t so many games so I’ve been waiting and I’m happy to be ready now.”

Kayal was re-introduced with Albion looking for more of a midfield spark.

He said: “The manager was asking me to be the third midfielder.

“I have my energy as well.

“It was a tough 75 minutes after a long time out and against one of the top teams in the league.”

Kayal took the noise coming from around him in the cavernous Wembley stands as a sign he was part of a decent containing performance.

He felt Albion frustrated Spurs and their fans, which made the manner of the goals they conceded all the more maddening.

The Israeli international said: “You could see the crowd weren’t happy with them because we did everything to stop them and their quality players.

“I thought we did well to stop this team with the quality they have to play between the lines.

“We conceded two soft goals and we had the opportunity to score ourselves. We had two opportunities for Tomer (Hemed). If you are not scoring and you concede soft goals, it makes the job hard.”