Midfielder Emyr Huws was delighted to return to first-team action in Saturday’s opening pre-season friendly against Paderborn, a match which was the Wales international’s first game for the senior side since December 2017.
Huws was part of the XI which played the second half of the 3-2 defeat to the Bundesliga new boys, ‘winning’ their half 1-0.
Although by no means at his best Huws showed glimpses of the form which made his such a fans' favourite following his loan from Cardiff at the end of 2016/17 and at the start of the next season after his move had been made permanent.
The 25-year-old last appeared for the first team at Middlesbrough in December 2017 when he suffered a knee injury which required surgery.
The one-time Manchester City youngster made a couple of abortive comebacks last season, featuring for the U23s and on one occasion on the bench for the first team, but Saturday was his first action for the senior side since suffering the injury.
"My first proper game of football in a long time. It wasn’t my best and I was rusty,” he wrote on Instagram.
"But to look back at how far I’ve come in the last six months makes me proud. This is only the start. The smart work continues!”
Huws is likely to get another half under his belt when the Blues play at the Interwetten Cup in Meppen on Sunday, either in the game against Fortuna Düsseldorf or the Blues’ subsequent match, either the final or the third/fourth play-off, against hosts SV Meppen or Dutch club FC Utrecht. Both games will last 45 minutes.
Since Saturday's first friendly Town have continued their training camp at their remote Romantik Hotel Aselager Mühle base in Lower Saxony close to Meppen.
In addition to the hard work on the FIFA training field, the squad have been taking part in recreational activities, including Sunday’s paintballing sessions, while a lot of the squad went cycling yesterday afternoon. Jack Lankester also posted a video of a keenly-contested game of Monopoly on social media.
The facility, which regularly hosts top German clubs for training camps, also features a tennis court, a gym and a massage room.
The squad, which is 29-strong plus coaching and support staff taking the total to 50, will return to the UK on Monday following the Interwetten Cup.