Sam Byram is relishing every day of his return to fitness but admits he’s returned to a Norwich City squad struggling for confidence.

The full-back spoke recently about retirement being a genuine worry during his 20 months out recovering from a serious hamstring injury but has started City’s last two games.

Wednesday night could see the 28-year-old in action against former club West Ham, who he joined from Leeds in January 2016 for a reported £3.7million but only managed 36 appearances, having a loan season at Nottingham Forest ruined by a serious knee injury before joining Norwich for £750,000 in the summer of 2019.

“I think when you’ve not won for a number of matches and some of our performances have been below what we expect, there is sometimes a confidence issue,” Byram said, speaking to TalkSport.

“You gain confidence from winning games and playing well, and the last few games we’ve done neither of those things, so we need to build on that and take it into Wednesday.

“West Ham are doing really well this season, they’re a tough team. We know where we are in the league, we’ve almost got nothing to lose.

“We’ve just got to go out and give it everything.”

The Canaries brought an end to five successive defeats without a goal as they won 1-0 away to League One side Charlton on Sunday, ahead of facing the high-flying Hammers.

Byram played 70 minutes before being replaced by Max Aarons at right-back, in the third appearance since his return to fitness.

“I love the FA Cup, it’s something that everybody in England looks forward to playing and for us it was a good opportunity for us to take a break from the Premier League,” he continued.

“It was nice for us to get a win because obviously we’ve not won in a few games now so it gives us that confidence for the next Premier League game on Wednesday.”

Whether Byram will feature against West Ham is unclear but with Bali Mumba being allowed to join Peterborough on loan, it appears he is now the chief competition for Aarons at right-back.

On his current mindset, Byram continued: “It’s also the case of not taking anything for granted, every training session now I go out there with the attitude that months ago, in my head, this wasn't possible.

“So every training session I just try to enjoy myself, train 110 per cent and everything now is an opportunity for me, so it has given me a different mindset towards football.

“I try and take the positives out of everything. Obviously it’s not a positive thing that has happened but if it’s one that for the rest of my career, that is the attitude that I have, then it can only help me.”

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