FREDDY Eastwood feels a persistent knee injury stopped him hitting top form during his loan spell at Southend United last season.

The 28-year-old striker showed only flashes of his best form during a two-month stint back at Roots Hall.

And Eastwood believes that was down to having to play through the pain.

“My knee caused me quite a few problems and there were a couple of games I played when I probably shouldn’t have done,” said Eastwood.

“I wanted to be involved in as many matches as I could while I was here because I wanted to help the team do well and get promotion, but my knee limited what I could do.

“I had to have an operation on it on Friday and that will keep me out for around three weeks.

“I will get treatment from the physio at Southend during that time and then I will be able to start running again to prepare for pre-season.”

Eastwood insisted he will work hard to regain full fitness and then bid to improve his match sharpness as he strives to rediscover his top form.

But, if he does stay at Southend, the striker knows he will be under pressure to perform.

“People expect big things from me when I’m here but I don’t mind that and I’m not the type of person who lets that get to them,” said Eastwood.

“A lot of my friends support Southend and my family are all local so they get to come to more of the games.

“That means if I’m not playing well and we don’t get good results then I really do get it in the ear from everyone.

“That made having the knee injury even more frustrating because I couldn’t play as well as I would’ve liked but I still enjoyed being back at Southend.

“The fans are always great towards me and that’s another reason why I’d be interested in staying.”