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After being away
from competitive football for seven months, Nigerian striker Ikechukwu
Uche finally made a long awaited return to action in last weekend’s
Spanish league encounter between Real Zaragoza and Real Madrid.

The Super Eagles
star joined Zaragoza from Getafe prior to the commencement of the
season but only made a paltry number of appearances (two) for Zaragoza
before damaging the cruciate knee ligament in his left knee last
September in a 4-1 defeat to Sevilla.

Unexpected move

So last Saturday’s
encounter against Real Madrid at the Estadio La Romareda was only his
third appearance of the season, but it was an appearance that seemed to
had emerged right out of the blues as many didn’t expect the Nigerian
international to make an immediate return to action so soon after
recovering from a career threatening injury.

“I guess a lot of
people will be surprised that I played but I trained hard in the days
leading up to the match and I guess I did enough to impress the coach
(Jose Aurelio Gay),” he said.

Zaragoza were a man
down but still level on scoring terms (1-1) with their more illustrious
adversaries by the time Uche came in to take the place of midfielder
Ander Herrera in the 75th minute of play.

A goal by Madrid’s
Brazilian superstar, Kaka, eight minutes from time however decided the
encounter in favour of the former Spanish and European champions and
ruined the day for Zaragoza. But it wasn’t enough to ruin the day for
Uche whose entry into the fray was accompanied by a resounding welcome
by the over 30,000 Zaragoza fans at the match venue.

Glad to be back

“Getting to play a
match after all these months was really something,” the 26-year-old
said. “It was a fantastic moment for me. Some of the fans were giving
me words of encouragement when I was warming up on the sidelines and
when I came in the welcome was fantastic. They were truly behind me but
I wasn’t happy that we lost in the end. It would have been nice to give
them something to cheer about.”

Saturday’s 2-1 loss
didn’t do much to alleviate what has been a poor campaign for Zaragoza
as they remain in the relegation zone with only four games to the end
of the season. Zaragoza will need to be at their best for the remainder
of the season if they plan on remaining in the Primera division come
the end of the season.

And it sure doesn’t
appear likely to be an easy task with upcoming games against Deportivo,
Espanyol, Xerez and Villarreal, but Uche has high hopes regarding his
club’s chances of escaping the drop.

“It won’t be easy
but I believe we have a very good chance of surviving,” he continued.
“Some of the games won’t be easy but we will be doing all we can to
make the fans happy.”

Up next, the World Cup

Another set of fans
who will undoubtedly be happy with Uche’s return to football are the
fans of the Super Eagles who haven’t seen their darling striker in the
green and white of the national team since last September’s 2-2 draw
against Tunisia in Abuja.

With the World Cup
in South Africa just over a month away, Uche will need to get as much
playing time as he can muster between now and the end of the season to
impress Super Eagles coach Lars Lagerback. It’s a task that doesn’t
appear easy, but Uche’s belief is resolute.

“A lot of people thought I wouldn’t play again this season but I am
back playing again,” he said “My aim now is to keep working hard so
that I can make it to the World Cup.”