Lewis Macleod said he can’t put into words the frustration of the last ten months as he came through an hour for the Development Squad last night.

The Scottish midfielder, signed from Rangers in January, has been nagged a persistent hamstring injury since joining which had seen him play just 45 minutes of football in more than ten months.

However, having successfully come through an hour last night for the Development Squad in their Under-21 Premier League Cup Second Qualifying Round win over Queens Park Rangers, Lewis is hoping that is the end of his injury nightmare.

“I feel good to be back,” said Lewis, speaking to Bees Player after the match. “In the first ten minutes I was thinking that I didn’t remember it being this hard but after that I felt really good and the boys got a well deserved win. I can’t even begin to describe the last ten months. It has been so unlucky the way that everything came about but now I just want to put that behind me and get back on the pitch.

“Hopefully that was a good start tonight. My family and the people around me have been important. The physios at Brentford have been good and they have had to take their time with me to get me back and it’s all credit to them.”

Having missed so much football Lewis might be excused for wanting to make up for lost time by getting back into first-team contention as soon as possible.

However The Scotland Under-21 International said there is no point rushing back and wants to make sure that he is 100 per cent fit before returning to first-team contention.

“I have always said that because it has been so long there is no point rushing it,” said Lewis. “Now is a good time to come back and I feel a lot better after tonight. I have got the feeling out of my head about whether tonight was going to go well or go badly. I am just looking forward to next week now. I can’t wait to get back to full fitness. That might be a couple of games away but I am just happy to get back onto the pitch and get back into it.”

Lewis has been joined in the physio rooms at Jersey Road by a number of first-team players this season as The Bees contend with a long injury list.

The 21-year-old said that while it is never good to see players getting injured it has helped him to have other players around his during his recovery and he thanked the squad for helping him through his recovery.

“It is hard when you are not training but there are a couple of other boys with injuries who have been around with me,” said Lewis. “It is much better now that I am back training with the squad and I feel a lot better. The boys have been massively helping me through. We have got a good group of boys. The main thing is that everybody helps you at all times and that is a really good thing about here.”

Lewis marked his return to action with a goal and an assist in Tuesday’s 2-1 Under-21 Premier League Cup victory over Queens Park Rangers and said that as a comeback game it couldn’t have gone much better for him or the team.

“Before the game I just wanted to get through the game and play as well as I could,” said Lewis. “I though the boys played really well and I was glad to get the win. Aside from the goal and the assist I was a little bit rusty after ten months out. I was really happy to get the assist and Josh Bohui did really well for the goal. To get the header was really good. The boys were really happy and we deserved to get the win. The effort put in during the first and second half was really good and we definitely deserved it.”

Bees Player subscribers can view the full interview with Lewis below