Peterborough United midfielder didn't want to come off after making long-awaited return from injury

Jeando Fuchs on his return from injury. Photo: Joe Dent.

Fuchs played the first 45 minutes of Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat away at Colchester as part of a pre-arranged plan to get him back in action.

He was then taken off at the break and replaced by Charlie O’Connell. Posh intend to get him 60 minutes of action next week before looking towards a full 90 minutes.

The 26-year-old midfielder had not played since August 12 when he limped off with a thigh injury, having only just come on as a second half substitute himself.

The injury required surgery but Fuchs has made an impressive recovery and is already around a month ahead of schedule.

Speaking after the match, Fuchs said: “I’m happy to be back but we like to win so it is not the best way to be back but the most important thing for me is to get 45 minutes and to keep working.

“It's so different from training and you think there you’re ready to start playing. The first 20 minutes was ok but after then I started blowing a bit because I’m not sharp, like usual, but it was good.

“I’m confident but now we need to work a lot tactically so I need to get back to feeling like myself and find how I can link up with the other players and how to play with them.

"It will take a little work but it will be good.

“I wanted to stay on a bit longer, you always want to do more in a game, especially when you are 1-0 down so I was a bit upset.

"Maybe if we got it to 1-1, I could have gone off but there is a plan in place and it’s best not to take a risk and pick up an injury.

“Since my rehab, I’ve done so much with the physio (John Chatfield), I’m one month ahead of where I should be already so now we need to be careful.

"I feel good but we need to be careful because we never know how my body may react.”

Fuchs has worked his way back into boss Darren Ferguson’s plans after being transfer listed at the end of last season.

He also featured sparingly from January onwards when Ferguson to replace Grant McCann, who signed Fuchs from Scottish side Dundee United, but is believed to have impressed the Posh boss and convinced him that he has a place in his plans moving forward.