Jahkeylo Burgess, one of Devonshire Colts’s most promising players, has made a speedy recovery from a serious injury.

The attacking midfielder broke his right leg in a crunching tackle with his cousin Edry Moore while playing for CedarBridge Academy during last December’s senior boys Bermuda School’s Federation Knock Out final against Berkeley Institute at the National Stadium.

The mishap occurred just weeks before Burgess was to have trails with Barclays Premier League side West Ham United.

It was thought the player’s injury would take up to six months to heal.

However, Burgess’s passion for football, successful operation and therapy has enabled the Bermuda Under-21 player to return to action much earlier than anticipated.

“My recovery has kind of caught me by surprise,” Burgess said.

Burgess came on as a late substitute in Colts’s 2-1 defeat to PHC Zebras in last week’s Appleby Knockout Cup Under-16 final at the same venue where he broke his leg three months earlier.

“I was a little timid when I came on,” Burgess said. “I came on in the last five minutes and it felt OK. Everything felt good, but I’m not quite there yet.”

Colts, who had goalscorer Ashon Hart sent off late on in a tense, hard-fought match for kicking an opponent, squandered a 1-0 lead and had another effort ruled offside.

“It was a hard game for us and I thought we could have done a little better,” Burgess said.

“I also thought that the officiating could have been better.

“But although we lost it was a triumph for me personally to see how my leg felt in a game situation.”

Burgess hopes to resume training with Bermuda’s Under-21 squad soon and said he has been given another opportunity to have trials at West Ham early next year.

“They [West Ham] told me to come back around the same time next January,” he said.

• Nathan Trott, the Bermuda Under-17s goalkeeper, was an unused substitute for West Ham reserves in the club’s 3-2 away defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park on Monday.

The former BAA and North Village goalkeeper signed a 2½-year deal at West Ham in January and has since been granted Fifa approval and international clearance to play for them.

Trott is one of two Bermudian players coming through the ranks at West Ham, the other being highly rated striker Djair Parfitt-Williams, who made two appearances for the club’s first team in the Europa League qualifiers last summer.