The talented winger has barely featured for the Midlands club following their promotion to Premier League two seasons ago due to consistent injury problems. Kightly was regarded as one of the finest talents outside of the Premier League whilst playing in the Championship, however his progress has been significantly halted since helping the team to the top flight. The 25-year-old now joins new signings Adam Hammill, Jamie O'Hara and Adriano Basso in manager Mick McCarthy's revised squad, and is eager to start working on winning his place back, although there remains some way to go. "I definitely think I'll play first-team football this season and that's a nice goal to have. I'm just really looking forward to playing football again, whether it's here or somewhere on loan," he told the club's official website. "When I've come back previously I've always had that little bit of pain but I'm not getting that now. "There are always likely to be niggles after so long out, but we're trying to avoid them as much as possible by building things up."
