Hibs: Callum Booth hopes Sean Welsh gets the right break ...

CALLUM BOOTH today backed Sean Welsh to put his injury-ravaged past behind him by forcing his way into Easter Road boss Colin Calderwood's first team plans.

The midfield kid has endured a list of injuries enough to make any player wince, including a horrific double leg break, a broken foot and three knee operations but has come back for more each time.

As a lifelong Hibs fan, his determination to live out his dream of pulling on a green and white shirt has been rewarded with a new contract, one which, Booth believes, he will grasp with both hands.

Booth was a team-mate, along with David Wotherspoon, as Welsh skippered Hibs Under-19 side to League and Cup glory two years ago only for a broken foot to prevent him stepping up to collect both trophies. But now, Booth insists the Lochend boy has finally got the sort of break he is looking for. He said: "I was delighted for Sean. I've known him for long enough as we've been at Hibs for about the same time and have grown up together. He's been very unlucky with injuries but hopefully he's now over the worst of them and can now look forward to getting a good pre-season under his belt and to push for a place in the team.

"I feel he is definitely good enough and if there's one guy who deserves a good break for a change then it is Sean."

Having already suffered that shattering leg break at the age of 14, Welsh's injury jinx struck as Hibs youngsters stormed towards both the SPL Under-19 League title and the SFA Youth Cup, breaking his foot just before both trophies were clinched in the space of a few days.

While many would have been left cursing their luck Welsh, according to Booth, simply took the setback in his stride. He said: "It must have been terrible for Sean but he never showed it. He turned up to support us as we won the League at Motherwell and then when we beat Rangers at Hampden in the cup final.

"He was there on the pitch, on his crutches celebrating as if he'd been playing. He just seemed to push it to the back of his mind and got on with things. That's the sort of guy he is."

Welsh's troubles weren't over even then, back on crutches before the first training session during the club's pre-season tour to Holland last summer was over, facing a bleak future knowing his contract was up in a few months' time.

A further short-term deal took him through to the end of the season, Welsh making the most of it as he clocked up 17 matches while out on loan at Stirling Albion, his performances convincing Calderwood he was worth another year-long contract, one which gives him the chance to follow in the footsteps of Booth, Wotherspoon and Paul Hanlon.

Booth said: "I'm not sure Sean will look on it as trying to make up for lost time although he's 21 now and I'm sure he'd have seen himself as pushing for a first team place by now. The fact he played those games with Stirling will have done his confidence a lot of good and he'll be looking to do the very best he can, to push himself into the manager's plans."And although he appeared to have done exactly that, returning from a loan spell with Brechin City to play 18 first team games, Booth insisted he'll be in virtually the same position as Welsh when Calderwood's squad report back for the start of pre-season training three weeks on Monday.

The Scotland Under-21 defender said: "I wouldn't say I've established myself, I'm still young and I think I have to play a few more games before I can say that. I'll be looking to have a good pre-season with the aim of being in the starting line-up on the opening day of the season.

"You want to be in the side that day because if the team gets off to a good start and you are on the bench then it could be hard to get back in."

It's little wonder 20-year-old Booth has his fingers crossed that he and his team-mates can hit the ground running, with Hibs having finished a miserable tenth, their worst position in almost a decade. Plenty of changes have already been made by Calderwood since the turn of the year and with striker Derek Riordan set to join those who left at the end of the season, Booth is anticipating meeting more new faces on June 20.

Revealing he's done nothing more than "chill in Haddington" over the past few weeks rather than chase the sun in the Mediterranean, he said: "Personally it was a pretty good season, a new contract which keeps me with Hibs for another four years and playing 18 games for Hibs.

"But for a big team like Hibs, to finish tenth is unacceptable. However, that's in the past, we have to look to the future and to doing much better."

Declaring himself unfazed by the rash of signings by Hearts - although he admitted Kevin Kyle and new arrival John Sutton would be "a handful" - Booth insisted he's more concerned with discovering just who will be joining Ivan Sproule, Hibs only new addition thus far, at Easter Road.

He said: "A lot of players have left the club so that means there are plenty of spaces to fill. The manager brought in some new players in January and we won five in a row so hopefully we can do the same. I'm sure everyone has faith in the manager to bring in his own players to improve the team.

"It's a new beginning. It's the manager's first pre-season, his first full season in charge and you have to think of it as a new start. I don't think anyone on the first day of training will be thinking about last season. We have to look to the future now."