FOR someone who has spent a large amount of time with his head in accountancy books over the past year, Kevin Kyle has proved his number is far from up - even if it was not too long ago when he thought it was.

Sunderland striker Kyle was sidelined in one, gruelling, 17-month spell that is longer than many players would suffer throughout an entire professional career.

But, while thoughts of retirement at just 22 became a serious possibility, the gentle-giant Scot's determination to overcome the odds and play again after two make-or-break operations have proved worthwhile.

Nevertheless, the length of time he did have to sit at home and consider his future did have implications on his life.

A break-up with his girlfriend - 'I was so horrible to live with during that time' - and a search for a new career away from the sport he has loved since his schoolboy days were just two.

That is where the three-year accountancy course he is studying for came from. Even if he has decided to defer the next two years until a more suitable time - for football reasons rather than the fact he has found some of the maths a little too difficult to mastermind.

Something that come easier to Kyle are his football skills, and the early sections of trying to attain his coaching qualifications have gone to plan.

"I went to the under-nines and under-tens (Sunderland's) on Wednesday night because I want my badges," said Kyle.

"The injury that happened to me puts everything into perspective. You have to start planning for a life away from football.

"The accountancy thing baffled my brains but I will start again next year and it will mean I could be a qualified chartered accountant. It might take five or ten years for me to do that!

"I did do my maths Highers (equivalent to A-level in Scotland) before I came to Sunderland and I knew I was good with numbers. But after a year and a few tests I thought I'd best take time out."

One thing Kyle will not be heading back into is baggage handling for the Irish Sea Ferries in his birth town of Stranraer.

That was his job as a teenager before he was saved from heavy lifting by Sunderland.

There has been a train of thought that the crippling hip problem could have arrived as a result of years of bending down and carrying suitcases, but Kyle has been told that was not the case.

"I don't think I would go back to the ferries because there wasn't enough money in it," said Kyle, expected to make his fifth start at Birmingham today since making his long-awaited comeback.

The injury sustained by Kyle was not too dissimilar to that which ended the career of Clive Mendonca, the former Charlton player who was brought up in Sunderland and scored a hat-trick in the 1998 play-off final against the Black Cats at Wembley.

Richard Sadlier, who has been training with Sunderland in an attempt to revive a career that was cut short in September 2003, has also been forced to retire once with the same problem.

So Kyle, predictably, is just relieved he has been able to return to the field of play wearing a red and white shirt, something he feared was never going to happen.

"Clive Mendonca wanted to get in touch with me because he wanted to say there was no way I would get back playing," said Kyle.

"But I just kept thinking I've got to find something from somewhere.

"Michael Bridges was here at the time and kept saying to me 'never pack it in'. He kept saying 'someone will be able to fix it'." He was right.''

An initial operation in Cambridge by surgeon Dr Richard Villar proved unsuccessful, as did a trip to Paris to see hip specialist Thierry Boyer.

But former Scotland Under-21s coach Rainer Bonhoff, a huge admirer of the big man's talents, took the step of introducing Kyle to Dr Hans Muller Wolhfart's world of bull's testicles and chicken bones.

Muller Wolhfart's alternative remedies may not have worked as well as expected but the highly-respected German gave Kyle the name of the 'only guy in the world that can fix it'.

Kyle's initial thoughts were 'yeah, right'.

But, after Sunderland had agreed to stick by the player and pay the $70,000 for him to have the operation, the date last summer with Dr Marc Phillipon could not have gone any better.

"If the guy in America couldn't fix it then that was it," said Kyle, whose last game prior to January was on August 31, 2004.

"I remember the drive back from Cambridge after my first operation and that night was the longest I have ever had in my life. But he did solve it."

With 12 games remaining Kyle knows he has between now and the end of the season to stay fit and prove he is worth an extra year's contract.

He has been told, after a sit-down with manager Mick McCarthy, that he is more than likely going to receive one, albeit it on reduced terms, but to bide his time.

What would certainly help his cause would be to score the first Premiership goal of his career and he insists he can't be held responsible for his actions if the ball eventually does ripple the net.

That will be Kyle's next step in his quest to reclaim the number nine shirt that was taken away from him last year by Jon Stead, at the time his career looked in serious jeopardy.

After winning arguably the biggest battle of his life already, few would bet against him pulling on his favoured jersey when the new season starts in August - even if it is in the Coca-Cola Football League Championship