DOUBLE Commonwealth Games medallist Danny Reed is ready to get back on the glory trail with England as he returns to table tennis after a year’s absence.

Reed, who is from Hutton Rudby, in North Yorkshire, put his sporting career on the back-burner after Glasgow 2014 to concentrate on finishing his studies at Sheffield Hallam University.

A first-class degree in psychology later, and the 26-year-old is now back on the table full time - and back in the England squad for the European Championships.

He will play alongside Loftus’ Paul Drinkhall, Liam Pitchford, Andrew Baggaley and Sam Walker as the Commonwealth team reunites for a crack at the Euros, which begin in Ekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday.

The Euros start with the team competition, and England, who won team silver in Glasgow, are targeting promotion from the second-tier Challenge Division back to the top of the European game. They begin with group matches against Italy, Bulgaria and Estonia.

“We look pretty good,” said Reed. “I think we’re in a strong position and although there’s a lot of teams at a similar level, there’s nobody we need to be afraid of – it’s more about us performing and playing to our best. We will hopefully win our group and can go on confidently.

“Since the Commonwealth Games, everybody seems to have gone to another level. I think we deserve to be in the top category but we’ve got to do it when it matters.”

Reed, who also won mixed doubles bronze alongside Kelly Sibley in Glasgow, will feature in the singles and in the men’s doubles, partnering Walker.

He has already had some good performances at the Austrian Open, where he and Walker reached the quarter-finals, and where he beat world No 135 Marko Jevtovic of Serbia in the singles.

“It’s obviously a big one because last year I didn’t play internationally,” said Reed, who expects to re-enter the world rankings at around the number 200 mark next month.

“It was good to go to the Austrian Open and do well. It was a confidence boost how we did in the doubles and I had one good singles win. I think that’s what I needed coming back after a year.”

Drinkhall believes the only ambition the team should have is to win promotion to the Championship Division.

“I think we’ve got to go up,” he said. “It’s a tough division but we believe we’re good enough. Individually we’ve definitely shown it over the last year or two. We’re in a good place, everyone is playing well and we’ve got to go there and work as a team.”

Drinkhall will partner Pitchford in the doubles and also has high hopes of going deep into the singles competition, having been beaten in the bronze medal play-off at the inaugural European Games earlier this year.

Stockton’s Karina Le Fevre competes in the women’s team event alongside Sibley, Maria Tsaptsinos and Lois Peake.