A hero soldier cannot wait to get back to Afghanistan and his men as he recovers from the wounds he received while winning the Military Cross.

Lance Corporal Colin Spooner of 2nd Battalion The Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment is still under doctors’ orders nearly a year after a shell exploded directly behind him while leading a patrol in Helmand.

But the 22-year-old soldier wants to be back doing the job he loves looking after his men – and his proud family are backing him up.

Father and ex-soldier Joe Spooner said; “He wants to get back to the regiment as quickly as possible and get back with his men. That’s how modest he is – all he can think of is his men. He wanted to get his men out.

I said: ‘You walked out so they wouldn’t have to carry you. That’s looking after the men.’

“You have got to show respect, not just because he is my son, but because of what happened. “Even when he was awarded the Military Cross, he said: ‘That’s for the lads, that’s not for me.’ Now it’s ‘My lads, what are they doing now?’ “He was never afraid of taking responsibility. If he fell over, he picked himself up and dusted himself down. He was like that from an early age.”

Mr Spooner said he was pleased that son Colin wants to continue in the Army. L/Cpl Spooner has just signed up for another three years and plans to stay in the Army until he has to retire at 40. He joined straight from school aged 16 years and five months. He is still waiting medical clearance before he can return to active service.

Retired Sergeant Major Joe Spooner himself served 24 years in the Royal Artillery and Colin always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.

The family are delighted to have their hero son home at Selby.

For months he kept quiet about how he continued to give orders when his patrol of 19 men were under attack by 40 Taliban, despite suffering from 32 shrapnel wounds. He knew the patrol was too busy to spare four soldiers to stretcher him off.

Only when he was awarded the Military Cross did they heard exactly what he had done.