Joe Shaughnessy says he “couldn’t stop smiling” as his 10-month wait to return to action for Dundee finally ended.
The Dens Park skipper has been a big miss since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament back in April.
But that long, long wait ended in the final few minutes of Saturday’s Scottish Cup victory over Airdrieonians.
With the tie already won at 4-0 up, manager Tony Docherty took the opportunity to get his captain back on the pitch.
And Shaughnessy was delighted to get back out there after getting a first taste of action for the reserves last week.
Pressure
“It felt great. It was a long 10 months and sometimes it felt like it was going to take forever,” Shaughnessy exclusively told Courier Sport.
“But it was nice to get back involved.
“I was just so happy, when I ran on I couldn’t stop smiling. Si gave me the armband and that was a nice touch but I settled down and eased my way into it.
“It was nice to get 10 minutes, but it’s handy when the lads had already done the business and there was not really any pressure on it.
“You’re playing in front of a crowd and it means something.
“The reserves was just about making sure you get your fitness.
“But then you’re out there and I’m coming on to a game where you’re 4-0 up and all I was thinking was I don’t want to be giving away a goal here!
“There’s that little bit of pressure, but I enjoyed it.”
What’s next in recovery plan?
Shaughnessy isn’t, though, expecting to be thrown straight back into the team when they return to Premiership action this weekend.
Time will be taken to ensure the Irishman is fully ready for the stresses of top-flight action.
“The recovery was quite smooth,” Shaughnessy added.
“We didn’t rush it and the medical staff – Bruce (Smith), Scott (Teister), Dave (Smith) and the doc (Dr Derek McCormack), they were really good with me.
“We had a program, we stuck to it and it worked.
“I’m back now, but I’ll still be sticking to the program that they’ve got for me to make sure I’m on top of it.
“It’d be easy now to just say, I’m back, chuck me in straight away.
“But still, I played an hour last Tuesday and 10 minutes against Airdrie.
“I’ll play in reserve games and slowly get up to 90 minutes and then just try and get back up to feeling 100% ready.
“It’s been 10 months, so it’s a bit unrealistic of me to expect to be back at 100%, flying straight away.”
Hardest part
Shaughnessy also revealed the hardest part of coming back.
Not the training or the fitness work to get back to his best. Instead it was trusting that his knee has in fact recovered.
“Physically, it wasn’t tough. It was more just mentally,” he added.
“My fitness is there and I’m strong, but it’s just getting the trust back in my knee.
“Going into the first tackle and the first block shot, I had a couple of them last Tuesday and it was a bit like, ‘oh’.
“But then I was all right coming out the end.
“So to get through that afterwards was a big step for me.
“I didn’t get tested too many times in that 10 minutes against Airdrie, but it was a different feeling just being back involved with the first team.
“It was good.”
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