On a forgotten field, Jeffers finds hope

It's been a long haul, but the £8m boy is ready to prove his worth. Nick Townsend meets him

Wednesday night at Victoria Road, the home of Dagenham and Redbridge football club, and the players' voices echo plaintively and spiritedly, in equal measure, all around round the Conference club's ground.

West Ham versus Arsenal. It is a titanic confrontation – or at least it is when it is, like yesterday, a Premiership contest, staged just a few miles to the west at Upton Park. Here, though, their reserve sides are in opposition on an occasion which is as dispiriting for some participants as it is uplifting for others.

When you play for the "stiffs" you know it is no place for theatricals, for berating officials, for playing to a packed gallery. It is demonstration night, whether you are a despondent, out-of-favour first-teamer, one returning from injury or an aspirational youngster. You want to impress the boss (in this case Arsène Wenger's assistant, Pat Rice, or the Hammers' Glenn Roeder), not 40,000 admiring spectators.

But for Francis Jeffers, it is more a matter of proving his wellbeing to himself as much as convincing Rice of his fitness. After a close-season operation on an ankle, he is simply relieved to have come through an entire game. Never mind that he did not get on to the scoresheet in the 2-2 draw. The experience confirmed to the former Evertonian that he has a future again after months of despair.

"Hopefully all the bad times are behind me," he says afterwards. "It is like starting all over again. It will take a few games to get my sharpness back, but the important thing was to get through the 90 minutes."

Last summer, the highly vaunted striker was adjudged by Wenger to be worth an outlay of £8 million. Even by Highbury's standards, it was a relatively lavish purchase.

But within two months Jeffers had damaged his ankle. He spent the ensuing months resting, then playing for the reserves – 10 games, six goals – before watching, predominantly from the stands and the bench, his team-mates secure a League and FA Cup Double. His only contributions, after two early-season starts, were appearances as substitute in three Premiership, one FA Cup and two Champions' League games.

Jeffers' problems began when he "got a whack" at Derby last September. "Eventually it was diagnosed as a bit of bone catching on my ligaments and it was causing the whole ankle to become inflamed. The bone needed to be taken out, but as we were pushing for the League, the boss thought that it would be a good idea to get through the season and have the operation done at the end. I was happy to do that because there were some big games coming up, including the FA Cup Final and Manchester United at Old Trafford."

He adds: "There were times when I feared that it might be the end of my career, but I had to keep thinking positively. My family were worried as well, but they were very supportive and just told me to keep my head up."

During his absence, of course, circumstances have significantly changed. Thierry Henry enjoyed a prolific season to claim the Golden Boot with his 24 Premiership goals, scoring another eight in other competitions, while Sylvain Wiltord's record was 17 goals in all competitions in a season during which yet another young French striker, Jeremie Aliadiere, appeared on the scene. And then there's a fellow named Bergkamp, and another, Kanu, when he returns from injury, all of whom will be competing for forward places.

"I knew that before I joined the club," responds Jeffers sharply. "I knew the strikers here. But if I'm not confident of my own ability, who will be? There's good competition, but it's also a good learning process. If for some reason it doesn't work out here, which I hope it does, then I'll still have gained some valuable experience."

The sheer number of games Arsenal will contest, in League, cup and, it is anticipated, Europe, will mean, in reality, that the England Under-21 striker will be offered every opportunity to demonstrate that he has lost none of his prowess since leaving Goodison Park.

Indeed, Jeffers issued a timely reminder of that fact when he scored at Highbury at the finale of last season against his old club. Significantly, Henry went out of his way to lay on an inviting chance for him, even though he was on a hat-trick himself, and Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink were both also chasing the Golden Boot in their final games. It was an act that appeared to demonstrate the team spirit that exists within the Gunners.

"That's the type of Thierry is," reflects Jeffers. "Everyone in the team's like that. Very unselfish. He could have scored four or five in that game, but he's tried to set me up. It makes you feel wanted. A lot of people have said that the one thing that struck them about that game is that the other lads wanted me to do well when I came on."

So, you suspect, does Wenger, for whom the striker is that rarity – an English acquisition. Jeffers is determined to reward that faith.