Brave British soldier faces a battle on two fronts.

A BRITISH soldier is at the centre of two major battles - fighting the Taliban and in a Government court challenge over injury compensation.

As Light Dragoon Anthony Duncan fought on the front line in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence launched an appeal in London involving his compensation for injuries sustained in Iraq.

If the Government wins, it could mean that both his and Royal Marine Matthew McWilliams's awards for injuries could be slashed and future payments limited for combat victims.

Cpl Duncan was originally awarded pounds 9,250, which was increased to pounds 46,000 by a Pensions Appeal Tribunal, and Marine McWilliams's pounds 8,250 award rose to pounds 28,750.

The 27-year-old corporal was shot in Iraq in 2005 and overcame two years of rehabilitation to ship out in April with his Light Dragoons colleagues to fight in Afghanistan for six months.

It is Cpl Duncan's first tour of duty since a bullet ripped through the inside of his left leg, hitting his femur bone and exiting the other side.

The soldier said: "I thought I'd been rugby-tackled at first. I was looking around for someone to swing for, then realised I couldn't feel my leg."

Lawyers representing the two soldiers will be arguing during the two-day hearing that the scheme was designed to compensate members of the armed forces injured in military operations.

In cases of combat wounds, payments under the scheme will be the only compensation to which the personnel are entitled, the judges will be told.