Yoane Wissa in Newcastle United's squad v Burnley
Yoane Wissa made his debut for Newcastle United, three months after joining from Brentford.
Wissa joined from Brentford for £55million on September 1 but just over a week later sustained on posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injury on international duty with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Magpies didn’t know it at the time, but it was an injury that would keep their new signing sidelined for three months.
Wissa finally resumed first-team training last week and followed that up by coming through two 11v11 matches unscathed. He was named on the bench for Saturday’s 2-1 win over Burnley before coming on as a 75th-minute substitute.
Yoane Wissa reflects on Newcastle United debut and injury hell
And he revealed that the reception he received from the Newcastle fans gave him goosebumps.
Wissa said: "It has been a long wait for me, for the fans and for my family. It is something I have been dreaming of all summer and when it happened, you feel like you are living the dream, so I am quite happy for that reception, which gave me goosebumps when I came on.
“It was a long wait but in the end, we got there.
"It has been frustrating. It was more frustrating at the end than at the beginning. At the start you know you can't do anything but when you are almost back, that is the moment where you get frustrated.
"You look at this team and the people at the club they have been like family to me. For the last 11 weeks, they have helped me
“The first four weeks were strange because I was new to the place but in the end I am happy to be ready.
"I had to watch the team from the stand. Every few days, I would visualise myself on the pitch and imagine helping the team in the best way I can. Today was not about me, we won and that is the most important thing. Now we are just looking forward to the next game."
Yoane Wissa’s social media sparks replies from current and former teammates
Wissa also took to Instagram to react to his debut, sharing several photos with the caption “finally home! Thank you for your support and love @nufc. Good win.”
The 29-year-old’s post sparked several replies from his current and former teammates.
Anthony Elanga, Tino Livramento, Malick Thiaw, Jacob Ramsey, Bruno Guimaraes, Sven Botman, Will Osula, Joelinton and Nick Woltemade all showed their support, while there was also a message from Manchester United winger Bryan Mbeumo, who replied “here we go”.
Former Newcastle defender and Wissa’s DR Congo countryman also said “my younger brother, Congolese are happy”.
Eddie Howe on Yoane Wissa’s Newcastle United debut
Asked about finally have Wissa available, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said: “Yeah, really important. I think he's done a lot of work to get to this point. He's got a lot more work to do to get to the very best level that he can. Yeah, very pleased to have him available.
“We hope to keep him available by managing correctly. It's difficult with the spell of games that we have to sort of train him and build his fitness with all the game schedule, so it's going to be a really delicate balance for us, but hopefully we can find a solution to it.”
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