Erin Cuthbert expressed joy and relief at making her first appearance of the season in Scotland’s impressive 2-0 win over the Czech Republic.
By winning the Women’s World Cup round-one play-off away leg, the Scots are well set up for the return in Paisley on Tuesday, with Sweden the likely opponent for the team that progresses.
Chelsea captain Cuthbert, 28, is yet to feature at club level this season following a knee injury and came on as a substitute in Pardubice. Fellow sub Claire Emslie finished superbly for the Scots’ second after captain Caroline Weir’s stunning opener.
“It’s so good,” Cuthbert told BBC Scotland.
“It’s been such a long summer. It’s always great to come on and play for my country again – I’ll never take it for granted when I get a serious injury.
“I’m just glad to get back on a football pitch. The relief, the amount of self-doubt that you have, the amount of stress – am I going to be back to the same level, how am I going to perform, is my knee going to be alright? All those things run through your head.
“It was a bad one. I was in crutches and a brace for the best part of a month. I lost a fair amount of muscle and over the summer I was trying to rebuild all of that again.
“It’s been a really, really hard journey.”