Ivan Toney is confident that he is going to be an even better player when he returns from his betting ban and has vowed to repay Brentford's support by firing the club out of their relegation battle.

Toney was handed an eight-month suspension in mid-May for 232 breaches of the Football Association's (FA) gambling rules, but he will be available again from January 17 and is expected to make his return for the Bees three days later at home to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.

The 27-year-old, who has been linked with misfiring Arsenal and Chelsea in the January transfer window, is motivated by helping Brentford away from the foot of the table and earning a place in England's European Championship squad next summer, having scored a hat-trick for Brentford's B side against Southampton's Under-23s on Saturday,

"I'm going to be hungrier, I'm in better shape now," Toney said. "There has been some time out, but what drives me is when people say: 'He's not going to be the same to where he left off'. So watch this space and see what happens.

"It's just about coming back as strong as possible. I notice I've got a short space of time to find my form but I'm sure I will.

"I am capable of doing it, the vision that I have is coming back and firing straight away. I want to be playing to the highest level possible in myself, enjoying football again."

Toney says Brentford's support was "massive" during his ban, and he wants to repay the club who have lost five straight league games to drop to 16th in the table and only four points above the bottom three.

"[Head coach] Thomas Frank has been nothing but the biggest help I could have asked for. The whole club has," Toney said in an interview with Sky Sports.

"The club was right behind me from the first bit. The fans were behind me, which was a massive part.

"Everyone knows Brentford is a family club, they have been nothing but amazing for me. I can't thank them enough, especially the fans. They were behind me from the first minute as well. So it's kind of like I have a lot to repay.

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"Everybody at Brentford knows I will do my best to try and get the club out of the sticky patch we're in."

Frank has ruled out selling £100million-rated Toney this month and the striker is hopeful of finishing the campaign by forcing his way into Gareth Southgate's England squad for the Euros in Germany in the summer.

“That's the aim,” he said. “To try and get back to my form and be involved.

“It's going to take hard work, dedication. But that's a goal to look towards and being involved in that would be a massive achievement.”