West Ham defender Winston Reid is set to make a playing return with New Zealand.

Reid has been sidelined by a knee injury since March last year, but is poised to pull on his boots once again in Dublin on Thursday evening as he captains New Zealand in their friendly clash with the Republic of Ireland.

He stated, "It's been a long time - I think my wife wants to kill me at this point.

"I've been fortunate enough throughout my career not to have too many serious injuries. Unfortunately I caught one 18 months ago.

"Hopefully I've crossed that bridge now and I'm just looking forward to regaining full fitness. It's taken a long time, hopefully we're there.

"It's been a while since we've been in camp together. Probably the last time I've been involved was Peru a couple of years ago.

"Look, we're here together, we've enjoyed it so far. We've trained well and we're just looking forward to the game tomorrow."