Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere looked every bit the promising midfielder of a couple of seasons ago, after making a stirring comeback from an injury that kept him out of the game for well over a year.
While Arsenal eked out a 1-0 win against Queens Park Rangers, the more encouraging aspect was the ease with which Wilshere returned to the cut and thrust of the English Premier League. Everything that was good about Arsenal in the first 60 minutes of the game came through the 20-year-old dynamo, and the midfielder could not be happier with his comeback.
"It felt amazing to be back," Wilshere told the club's official website. "All the hard work and long days at the training ground have paid off.
"From the moment that I went out there, the fans were great. Even before the game when I was meeting Arsenal fans they were positive and all I can do now is prove to them that I can get back to the level I was at before and show them what I can do.
"It's been a long journey. As I've just been told, it's been 524 days since my last game. That's a long time, especially not to have any competition. You can play many reserve games but to come back into the Premier League is difficult.
"I have to thank all the medical staff, Declan and Colin Lewin. When you go to the training ground day after day there are times when you don't want to do it, especially when you see all the boys go out to training. But it's great now to be back and hopefully I can push on from here.
Wilshere said his family had played a big part in keeping his morale up during the difficult period. ""My family have been great too," he added. "My dad is always been there for me and my mum as well. I think they were just as excited and nervous as me coming back.
"I've got my son now too and I don't know what I'd do if it wasn't for him. He helped me through it massively. No matter what you go through, when you see you son you're happy. For a couple of months, that was all I was looking forward to really was going home to see him.
"I didn't want to go into training just to see the other boys going out on the pitch to train. But you have to. For the last couple of months, I've been going in at 8am and going home at 4pm and the hard work is paying off now."
When the midfielder was out of the game, several pundits tipped him to be the next big thing for England, with Wilshere being mooted as England's answer to Italy's class act Andrea Pirlo. The youngster, however, is not too bothered by the expectations. "Football can be like that, especially with England," he said. "You can become a better player when you're injured, you become a world-beater.
"When you come back, there's an expectation but I can deal with it. That's part and parcel of football and there's older players here who can keep my feet on the ground and help me.
"I didn't expect to be starting. When the boss told me this morning, I was just shocked. But from the moment I went out there it just felt like home. It was great.
"He just said to me, 'I'm going to play you from the start, I think you're ready and see how you feel after 60 minutes.' Well after 60 minutes I was just dead!
"I wanted to play, after 14 months any player wants to play. I've got to take it slow, 14 months out is a long time but it'll come back slowly.
"The hard work is not over yet. But we're sort of through it a bit."
The last time Wilshere played for Arsenal in a competitive game, he was playing alongside Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Alex Song. Now he has the likes of Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Santi Cazorla to gel with, and that is something that Wilshere is really looking forward to.
"Last time I played a Premier League game, I was playing with Fabregas, Nasri and Song," he said. "They've all moved on and so it's like coming into a new team.
"But Mikel Arteta is a leader both on the pitch and off the pitch and he talked me through the game.
"And it's a dream for any midfielder to link up with Santi Cazorla. Even the small things, like the pace of his passes, he just understands you and it's good to play with.
"I can only thank the players for helping me come through slowly and helping me do what I wanted to do. After the week we had, we just needed the win any way we could get it. Now we can look forward to Reading and there's a big one next weekend.
"Just for now, I'm happy to be back. I'm happy to be out there and healthy again. I was just running round smiling and that feeling was amazing."
