Grant Hanley has revealed that he made the decision to put himself through a personal fitness programme as he failed to reach his best after injury.

The Norwich City captain returned from a long-term injury as well as associated minor injuries earlier this season, but struggled to impress and made just six league starts before head coach David Wagner announced that he'd be out of contention until the end of this month.

Hanley told The Pink Un that he decided enough was enough after that difficult spell, and set about returning to top shape in a final bid to make the Canaries' crunch end game.

"It's something that came from me," he said. "It was me that made the decision at the end of the day, and it was fully backed by the medical and coaching staff.

"I'm not a young kid, I've been in the game long enough to make decisions for myself and it wasn't a decision that came easy.

"I knew it was time sensitive in terms of the end of the season. I'm desperate to be involved in the play-offs and I'm doing my best to be involved in the Euros with Scotland."

The 32-year-old admitted he'd rushed through his initial recovery, with this return feeling different to previous injuries.

"I just felt like physically I wasn't anywhere near where I needed to be," he continued.

"I probably underestimated the injury, and along the way there were times where I probably wasn't 100pc honest about how everything was feeling.

"It got to the point where I was back training and playing, probably being a bit stubborn. I thought it would take time, maybe five or six games to get back to where I needed to be.

"But what I was feeling wasn't getting any better, it was probably getting worse physically. Whenever I've had injuries in my career, whether it's pain or movement or performance, it's always just been keeping my head down and working harder and I get there.

"But I tried that and it wasn't to be. We've taken a step back, changed a couple of things about how we approached it, tried to resolve a couple of issues which are resolving.

"I'm definitely happy and positive that we made that decision."