Manchester United winger Tahith Chong has admitted that he has found it "tough" to take up a watching brief during his time out of the Birmingham City side through injury in recent months.
The Dutchman, who joined the Championship club on a season-long loan deal from United back in July, made his first appearance since October during the Blues' 2-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Saturday afternoon after recovering from a serious thigh injury that required surgery. Chong, who returned to Carrington during his recovery programme, stepped off the bench to store a valuable 24 minutes under his belt, before starting and scoring for the Under-23s in a 4-2 win over Middlesbrough less than 24 hours later on Sunday afternoon, further bolstering his fitness levels.
Having now made his long-awaited comeback, Chong, who will be hoping to help Birmingham enjoy a strong end to the season, has reflected on his time on the sidelines.
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"It is very difficult, from the start when I got in the staff, the players, the fans just welcomed me and I felt so, so welcome at the club," Chong told Blues TV. "When you feel welcome you want to give your all to the club and to just go out with an injury from nowhere really was tough.
"Even back home I was watching all the games and stuff and it's tough sometimes because you want to be on the pitch, every footballer wants to be on the pitch. Credit to United, credit to the staff here and my parents, after that, just to sit through it and grind it out, hopefully this is just the start of building up again."
Although the former Werder Bremen man has now made his return, Blues boss Lee Bowyer, speaking after the defeat to Huddersfield, has conceded that it will take time for the United loanee to get back to his true capabilities.
He said: "We all have to be patient with him, it was good to see him out there, it is going to take a while to get Tahith back to the position he was before the injury. Like I said he was a bit rusty, you saw he got caught a couple of times."
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