Jones Glad To Be Back

Phil Jones expressed his delight at making his first appearance of the season after a rough time with injuries.

The defender feels ready to contribute with games coming thick and fast after proving his fitness with an impressive comeback against Galatasaray.

"I'm knackered to be honest," he admitted. "It wasn't the best of pitches to play on either. It was quite heavy on the legs but I'm delighted to get through 90 minutes. I'm buzzing about that. It's been difficult. I've had my downs. I picked up a few niggles and had surgery on my knee so I've had a pretty wretched four or five months.

"I've been in the gym every day and it's not easy. I had to concentrate on getting myself fit and worked quite hard to get to where I am now so I'm just delighted to be back. I'll feel stiff on Wednesday but everything is fine. Hopefully I can push on now, get back in the team and prove why I should be here."

Jones praised Galatasaray's fans for making so much noise during their 1-0 win. "It's the best [atmosphere] I've ever played in," he added. "From start to finish. I couldn't hear the keeper. I couldn't pass messages on. It was very difficult but the same for both teams.

"We should have switched on and dealt with the corner. We shouldn't be getting punished on set-pieces. It's happened and we still had chances to go on and draw, if not win, but it just wasn't our night. There were a lot of positives. We controlled a lot of the play - we were lacking a bit with the final cross or final ball and perhaps should have finished it off. But I think we were a bit unfortunate."

Phil Jones was speaking to MUTV and Sky Sports.