Andreas Bjelland said it felt good to be back after he stepped onto a football pitch for the first time in 11 months in tonight’s pre-season friendly defeat against Boreham Wood. The Danish International defender suffered a serious knee injury during his Brentford debut last August against Oxford United which kept him out of action for the rest of the season. The 27-year-old returned to training ahead of the summer break and got his first taste of action in tonight’s 2-1 defeat in Hertfordshire.

Speaking to Bees Player after the match Andreas said: “I feel really good. It was important to get 45 minutes in the legs. After being out for nearly a year it was good to be back playing football against another team instead of just training. It has been a horrible year and a long recovery. I got to train with the guys a little bit before the break but it has been important for me to come back fit for pre-season and to play the first game was really good. It was really good just to feel that you still know what football is especially if you go for a whole year and don’t get to train or touch the ball. I felt good when I went away on holiday knowing that I could do all the stuff that I could do before.”

After spending so much time out of action Andreas said he wanted to try and use the experience as a positive and come back stronger for it. In the time that he was out Dean Smith replaced Marinus Dijkhuizen as Head Coach and Andreas is keen to make a good impression on the new coaching team now that he is back fit.

“I don’t forget about last year and hopefully I got stronger from last year,” said Andreas. “Hopefully I developed some stuff I can do now. Of course it is a new start for me this year. There is a new coach who doesn’t know who I am and how I play. It is a new start and a new beginning which started today. It is mentally tough and it gets round to just being a job. You do your job, get it done and go home for family time. There were some rough periods particularly over December and January but it is just great to be back playing football.”

Andreas will be part of The Bees training group heading to Germany in the morning for their Training Camp near Dusseldorf. After a week of hard work at Jersey Road, Andreas is looking forward to something similar next week building up to the new season.

“Pre-season is always tough,” said Andreas. “I did some work to keep me going over the summer so I feel quite good physically. It is always tough to be back and training twice a day. The goal is to get some good training in over the Germany and a good game. I don’t know if I will play another 45 minutes but it is just important to get more minutes in my legs while still being careful with the knee. I feel good and I am looking forward to the trip to Germany.”