Midfielder enjoys cameo appearance at Northampton
The news came through on the eve of Pompey’s opening pre-season friendly at Havant & Waterlooville.
Wes Fogden had suffered a knee ligament injury and would be out of action for some time.
But the midfielder made his long-awaited comeback for the final 12 minutes of a Sixfields Stadium clash with Northampton.
And after such a long time sitting on the sidelines, Fogden was thrilled to be back in action.
He said: “It’s a massive relief for me to be out on the pitch and getting into the groove of first team football again.
“There’s a lot of stuff going round in your head, but once you get out there it all goes away.
“You wonder if you’re going to be sharp enough and whether your body can cope with what your head wants it to do, but I felt good.
“Playing football is my job and when you’re unable to do that you can feel a bit worthless.
“So there’s been a bit of impatience because I’ve trained well for the past few weeks and the knee feels fine.
“I was a bit disappointed not to get the shout at the weekend, but it was worth the wait.”
Fogden went close to scoring just moments after entering the fray, although ultimately could not help Pompey recover from Ricky Holmes’ first half strike for the hosts.
He said: “It’s not ideal coming on at 1-0 down, but there was a chance to create something.
“Unfortunately I just missed the target with a shot, but hopefully the next time it will go into the net.
“The gaffer told me to bomb forward as much as I can, so it’s disappointing that we couldn’t find an equaliser.”