Erin Cuthbert expressed joy and relief at making her first appearance of the season in Scotland's impressive 2-0 win over Czech Republic. The Chelsea captain, 28, had been sidelined by 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."
She revealed the psychological toll: "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."
Cuthbert explained the severity: "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."
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing