James Ward-Prowse is looking forward to arguably the biggest game of his career after three months on the sidelines.

The midfielder played for an hour of the defeat at Burnley, his first appearance since recovering from the foot fracture he suffered at Swansea in September.

Now he is ready to help Saints reach their first major cup semi-final for 12 seasons, ahead of tomorrow's Capital One quarter-final at League 1 high fliers Sheffield United.

He said: “We’re all desperate to turn around the run we’re on and get back to winning ways.

“And there’s no better opportunity to turn our fortunes around than in a quarter-final.

“It’s going to be a massive occasion. It’s good as a young player to be involved and we’re very confident we can beat them.

“We know the qualities they’ve got and we’ll analyse them, but we know we’ve got enough quality to win the game.”

“We need to make sure we win the battles at the start of the game as that helps us to go on and win.”

Ward-Prowse insists the squad still believes in itself and that the current loss of form is just a blip.

“The confidence is definitely still there,” he said.

“We know we’re all good players and a good team it’s just one of those runs in a season where you have a bad result or two.”

Ward-Prowse admitted he was “more nervous than ever” after coming on to replace Jake Hesketh after half an hour at Turf Moor, following the most frustrating three months of his career.

“With the lads doing so well, I’ve wanted to be there to contribute,” he said. “It’s been very difficult to watch but I’m just thankful to the club and the medical staff for getting me back in such good shape. “I’m very happy to be back but the last few months have also been an eye opener in terms of looking after my body and being in the right condition to play matches.

“The Premier League’s a very demanding game now so I’ve been doing a wide range of activities to make sure I can cope physically with whatever is thrown at me.”