Jay Rodriguez suffered an cruciate knee ligament rupture on 6th April 2014 and is now back on the pitch after a whole 413 days - missing out on a massive 50 Southampton games during his absence
At the start of the new season, the 25-year-old is back on the pitch but only on the on at the Staplewood Campus training ground.
He has to wait until the 9th of August, where he could make his possible return to competitive football against Newcastle United.
Looking forward to the new season
In an interview on Southampton's official YouTube channel, he said that he is "very excited for the new season".
Rodriguez is also feeling good about his comeback and admitted "it was nice to be back among the lads", while adding he was getting his "bearings on the pitch" once more.
During his injury, the Englishman was looking forward to his comeback and at the end said he was "itching to get back", and that "it was a great feeling" to return to action.
Rodriguez also said that he just wants to improve himself, which he underlined by commenting: "you want to show what you can do and improve on the last game or last training session". He concluded by saying: "You want to be better than you were before."
Battle for places hots up
With Rodriguez's comeback, Southampton have one more player to use out wide. Juanmi has been a very good addition to the squad, and the former has a fight on his hands to make the position his own again.
The coach, Ronald Koeman, is now able to rotate the squad during the season and use the new found squad depth. This could be crucial if the Saints want to succeed in Europe and emulate their spectacular 2014/15 campaign.