WOUNDED soldier Matthew Light is hoping to be back home in Yorkshire by tomorrow.

Pte Light, 19, arrived back in Britain on Friday after a gruelling 18-hour journey from Afghanistan to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

Matthew, son of Kirklees Conservative leader Clr Robert Light, was then transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham by road.

His family – father Robert, mother Sharon and younger sisters Rebecca and Jessica – were reunited with him at 9pm that night.

Clr Light said: “It was very emotional and such a relief for us to see him and for Matt to see us.

“It has been a very emotional 10 days, very hard to put into words. We are all relieved to have him back in the UK and Matt is very grateful to be back on home soil.”

Pte Light was wounded in a bomb blast on the front line.

The explosion killed one of his colleagues, Pte John King.

Clr Light was speaking yesterday as he travelled down to visit Matthew in hospital.

His mother Sharon had remained in Birmingham over the weekend to be near their son.

Clr Light said: “The Birmingham doctors are looking at him today and we are hopeful that Matt will be able to come home today or tomorrow.

“Our fingers are crossed for good news and I’m hoping to be able to bring him back home with me.

“The surgery on his legs seems to have been successful; the wounds have closed up.

“He is still deaf in one ear, but we are hoping that this will improve.”

Matthew was on foot patrol with fellow troopers from the 1st Battalion Yorkshire Regiment in the notorious Helmand Province on December 30 when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated.

The blast wounded him but tragically killed his comrade and friend Pte King, 19, who was walking alongside.

Matthew, who was leading the expedition in the Nahr-e Saraj district, suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs and deafness in one ear and was rushed to hospital at Camp Bastion for emergency surgery.

He underwent two operations in Afghanistan before being flown back to the UK.

Pte King’s body was repatriated from Afghanistan last week and was greeted with emotional scenes from his family and friends after he was flown home to RAF Brize Norton in the first such ceremony of 2012.