Injury-hit Edwards aims to soldier on in Sunderland's cause.
By: Simon Williams (Guardian.UK).[/size]
Debut top flight season has been a disaster but winger believes that he is ready to return A Sunderland reserve team game at a cold and blustery Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground in Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, is possibly one of the last places you would expect to find someone from the sun-drenched Caribbean islands of Trinidad & Tobago. Then again, the Premier League is not a normal destination for former soldiers who volunteered for armed service before realising they had the ability to play professional football.
Carlos Edwards' journey has been a colourful one. It started in his humble home town of Diego Martin on the island of Trinidad, included two years in the army and has taken in a World Cup in Germany, as well as unglamorous stints with Wrexham and Luton Town.
"I don't want to make a judgment on the way other people's lives work out," said Edwards. "But because of the way my career has gone, the progress I've made and what I've got now compared to back then, I appreciate where I am perhaps more than anybody."
Sadly, at 29 and having taken so long to reach his destination, Edwards' first season in the Premier League has been a disaster with injuries limiting him to just five first-team appearances, his last at the start of December against Derby County when he broke his leg.
"I've been working all my professional career to get to this level, to experience the Premier League and to have that taken away when there was so much excitement at the start of the season was difficult," said the winger, whose run out for the reserves has put him in contention to face Chelsea tomorrow. "But you have to be strong and deal with it.
"Disappointing things happen in life, just like good things do and just like challenges present themselves. Before I got to this point with Sunderland, people would ask me whether I'd prefer to play in the Premier League or the World Cup. I used to say, 'well, you know, the World Cup would be great', but then that dream came true and then in the course of a year or so, I was doing both.
"Then the injuries happened. So, for me, playing in the Premier League this year just wasn't to be, but hopefully we'll survive, which I'm sure we will because I'm a positive guy."
His absence has been acutely felt by Sunderland, as their manager, Roy Keane, who paid Luton Ł1.4m to sign him last January, has admitted.
"It's only since he returned to training that you realise how much we have missed him," said Keane, who was there to watch Edwards' reserve comeback on Wednesday night. I'm sure we would have scored a few more goals because he is one of those players who likes to get behind teams. We've got a lot of players who look nice on the ball, but we haven't really been able to hurt teams. Carlos is a threat, even on a bad day. He has been a massive loss to us."
Edwards claims his army training gave him his determination to succeed, as well as the ability to deal with his manager's occasional outbursts because "there are scarier sergeant majors".
He added: "I'm a military man. It turned me into an independent person. It made me strong mentally, as well as physically, and they teach you things that mean you're always prepared, always ready and you're always 10 steps ahead of your enemy.
"Moving into football, I tried to put all that into effect and I always try to think a few steps ahead of the opposition we're playing against. Sometimes it doesn't always go to plan, but it helps having that mentality that you're going to try and do things in a positive way."
Given that they are just two points above the drop zone, Sunderland need to stay positive and Edwards, like any good solider, will fight to the end. "There are many players at this club who have worked their way up to this point," he said. "I don't know whether that gives us more drive or determination to stay here, but what I do know is that it gives an edge to what I'm doing; I don't want to go back to the Championship, I don't want to go back down. I won't let it enter my mind that we're going to get relegated. I'm just going to try my best to keep Sunderland floating in the Premiership."
Exiled Soca WarriorsDwight Yorke,[/b]
Sunderland Age 36 Caps 58
Won the treble with Manchester United in 1999; has a stadium in Tobago named in his honour
Dennis LawrenceSwansea Age 33 Caps 69
6ft 8in defender scored the goal against Bahrain that sent the Soca Warriors to World Cup
Kenwyne JonesSunderland Age 23 Caps 34
Played against England in Nuremberg; signed by Roy Keane for Ł6m
Silvio SpannWrexham Age 26 Caps 28
Latest Trinidadian at the Dragons; missed World Cup with injury
Carlos Edwards has not played for Sunderland since December. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty ImagesYou've read the piece, now have your say. Email your comments to football.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk.
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Also it should now be much easier to get a work permit there in fields other than sport! 
