Michael Ball remains hopeful of winning a contract at Wigan Athletic.

Ball was all set to sign for Wigan when a knee injury saw a contract whipped off the table.

Now he's hoping Roberto Martinez still wants him when he's fully fit in a couple of months.

He said: "Everything was on schedule until I tore my cartilage in training and I'll be out until the middle of March. Fingers crossed I can still get a contract at Wigan, I was three hours away from signing a deal there a few weeks ago.

"They offered me a contract on the Monday at 1pm, we got the scan results back at 4pm. We weren't expecting anything from the scan because it had died down a bit. I managed one game, the gaffer Roberto Martinez wanted to see me in another but because of the weather it never happened.

"It was just a little twist of the knee in training and I carried on, thinking it was nothing. The manager at Wigan has good ideas, plays it the right way and they have got a good set of lads, so I'd like something to work out there.

"It's not such a bad injury but it just happened at the worst possible time because I'd been out for a year."