Alan Stubbs is completing a medical as he prepares to return to Everton, the club he captained to Champions League qualification last season. The 34-year-old Kirkby-born centre-half will sign a short-term deal to the end of the campaign with a view to another year's contract for next season. And Stubbs, who quit under a cloud of accusations to join Sunderland in the summer, now says: "I'm absolutely thrilled and delighted to be back at the club I have supported all my life - what happened last summer is now water under the bridge. "My target is now a simple one. I want to prove my worth between now and the end of the season in the hope of securing a contractual extension. "All I want to do now is play for Everton for as long as possible and to end my playing career at Goodison Park." It is an amazing about-turn for Stubbs, who quit Merseyside in the summer when Everton refused to offer him a new two-year extension to his contract. And there were claims from Stubbs he was upset the club would only offer a one-year deal and refused to withdraw a clause in the contract regarding the recurrence of his testicular cancer. Stubbs' return to Goodison is expected to go through today to allow him to play against Arsenal on Saturday, and he has now moved to explain last summer's row. He told the club's official website: "After I left Everton last summer, I made certain accusations which I do now regret due to a basic misunderstanding. "I suggested the club were unwilling to remove from the 12-month contract extension I had been offered a clause that may have had a bearing on that deal if there was to have been a recurrence of my cancer. "I now accept that, as the club said at the time, they were fully prepared to remove the clause in question upon my being given the all-clear by a specialist. "I can only apologise. It was a difficult time for me and with the benefit of hindsight, I accept that I misinterpreted certain information which had been given to me by the club."