A TEENAGE soldier whose leg was blown off when he trod on a mine in Afghanistan says he is disappointed he couldn't stay out there longer.

Private Matthew Woollard, 18, was returning from a mission to capture a Taleban stronghold when he was injured by the mine.

The blast tore his right leg off from the calf, leaving him with severe burns and an open wound running all the way down his left leg from his groin.

He is now recovering in the military hospital at Selly Oak, Birmingham, where he still faces two months of intensive physiotherapy and reconstructive surgery.

"Once the blast had gone off I looked down and I saw I was missing my foot and half my leg," said Matthew.

"I don't know what I thought really. I just wanted to get out of there.

"I was just disappointed I couldn't stay out there. I had to come home. After all this training I had been doing, all of a sudden I had to come home after just a month."

Following the explosion, Matthew, of Mendip Crescent, Westcliff, remained conscious while a medic applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding and he was stretchered back to safety at Camp Bastion.

He was flown back to England two days later, on May 5.

"I remember everything," he said.

"The blast was so amazingly strong. It was just a loud, loud bang - more like a crack - and there was ringing in my ears afterwards for ages.

"You can't hear anyone and people's voices are going in slow motion. When they are trying to talk to you and you're trying to hear, it's really weird.

"My whole body just went into shock."

Matthew first considered joining the Army when he was still a member of Leigh Army Cadets, because he wanted a career which would offer him variety.

He started training as soon as he left the Deanes School, Thundersley, at 16, and passed out in May, 2005.

The Afghanistan tour was his first mission overseas with the Royal Anglian Regiment's First Battallion.

"I was nervous, but I'd had so much training and it's what I've always wanted to do, so I just cracked on with it," said Matthew.

"I wanted to put a brave face on it, but you're only human so you're going to worry."

His training paid off once he got to Afghanistan and faced terrible conditions, coping with soaring temperatures and using a wooden bucket - burned each night for hygiene reasons - for a toilet. The soldiers would carry out patrols at random times every day and were fired on whenever they left their outpost.

"It's just getting on with it," he said. "That's what you're there for and you're getting paid for "It's your job. It's not a Butlins holiday."

Matthew is now concentrating on getting better. He has to undergo an operation every three days just to change his bandages, as his wounds are so severe.

He is also suffering from "phantom" pains which make him feel as if his missing limb is still there. Eventually they will subside, he has been told.

"I can feel my foot itching and I keep going to grab it," said Matthew.

The brave teenager is managing to keep his spirits up and still hopes to learn to drive once he has a prosthetic leg fitted.

"I just think well, life goes on - keep your chin up," he added.

"There's nothing I can do about it, it's done now. I'm lucky I'm still alive."

Prince Harry is just another human being

PRINCE HARRY is "just one of us", even though he won't be allowed to serve in Iraq, says injured soldier Matthew Woollard.

Matthew said he felt the Royal soldier was no different from any serving man or woman, though he could understand he might prove a target if he was sent to war.

"He's just another one of us isn't he? He's just another human being," said Matthew.

After months of speculation, the prince has finally been told he will not be joining troops in Iraq, because of specific threats made against him.

Harry was reported to be disappointed by the news, but head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, says he feels it is too risky.

"I'm not sure if he went out there he would be safe," said Matthew.

"They'd keep him in a safehold anyway. I don't think they'd let him on the front line.

"He would just be a target if the Iraqis knew."

The awful day the Army came knocking

IT'S every service mum's worst nightmare... a knock at the door, bringing the awful knowledge something is seriously wrong with your child.

Angela Woollard had been waking up every morning, wondering if her 18-year-old son was safe in Afghanistan.

Then one day, she heard the doorbell ring and a man showed her a card which read "Army".

"I started backing away and saying No, no'," she recalled.

"He saidm he's all right. He has been injured. Come and sit down and I'll tell you all about it.' "So I knew straight away he wasn't dead and they started to tell me, bit by bit, what had happened."

Mrs Woollard, who lives in Mendip Crescent, Westcliff, learned her son Matthew had lost half his leg and been left with 160 pieces of shrapnel in his body.

"I was in panic mode and couldn't even work my own phone," she said.

"The Army was so good, though. It gave me phone numbers I could use 24 hours a day to contact it if I had any worries or needs."

It also pays her travelling expenses and puts her up in a flat near the hospital whenever she visits.

"I got to see him at about five o'clock and it was a bit of a shock," she said.

"He was just really droopy and he just looked like he had gun powder blown in his face and he had black eyes. He said All right mum?' but he was in a lot of pain."

Despite the shock, she has never blamed the Army for what happened.

"Matt was all right, getting on with his mates and his job, doing what he was trained to do," she explained.

"If this hadn't happened, he would still be out there."

Matthew agrees with his mum - and feels people really shouldn't criticise the Army or the soldiers when they are working hard overseas.

"The lads out there are working really really hard and it's all for our country. They don't deserve criticism."