After a nightmare three months out injured, leaving him unable to compete for us after his deadline day signing, Yoane Wissa has finally made his debut as a Newcastle United player.

Coming on for a brief 15 minute cameo in the win against Burnley at the weekend, Wissa’s presence could not have come at a better time for Eddie Howe and the rest of the squad.

With no AFCON call-up, the Congolese star is set to be available for all of our crunch December clashes, including the upcoming Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen, and of course the Tyne-Wear derby at the weekend.

And now Wissa has shed some light on the immense dedication he showed to recovering as soon as he possibly could, and how excited he is to take part in the game against Sunderland in particular.

How injury hell helped him settle

96 days: the time between Yoane Wissa signing on deadline day and the moment he stepped foot into the pitch at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.

For a player with a frankly stellar injury record prior to signing for us, this three month absence would no doubt have been a nightmare for the 29-year-old to endure.

However, even thought it was a blow to the team and frustrating for the man himself, Wissa h

“Frustrating of course, because you’re waiting for this the whole summer, so when it happened I didn’t know it was going to take this long.”

“But the other part, I was quite happy because I settled myself here through the injuries.

“I settled my family here, the kids at school, I looked for where I needed to live, and I speak with the guys (in the squad) because even I was happy when I was injured.”

Wissa’s relentless 10 weeks

Keen to repay the devotion and dedication to sign him the club had shown him throughout the summer, Wissa undertook an intense rehab cycle to try and get back to playing condition as soon as possible, as he explains below:

“For the first, I would say 8-10 weeks, I didn’t have one day off because I wanted to make sure everything was right.

“I wanted to come in everyday, have some treatment, see the specialist, speak to the doctor, so many things, no days off for 8-10 weeks.”

“After I knew was coming closer, they told me to rest a tiny bit because my body needed rest. But yeah I’ve been running for the last 8 weeks or so, so it’s been a long, long, long time but finally I’m here.”

On Champions League and Tyne-Wear derby aspirations

Wissa made it very clear with old club Brentford that he wanted the move to the North East more than anything as we would help him achieve his dream of playing Champions League football.

And as part of our wider squad for the competition, a golden opportunity to play away against dangerous Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen is coming on Wednesday night.

But playing against Sunderland in the Tyne-Wear derby has also caught the striker’s eye, with him hoping to “smash” the Mackems when we meet on Sunday:

“I never played Champions League before, so it’s going to be my first time, so yeah looking forward to that, to win against Leverkusen. Hopefully score against Mark Flekken, my old teammate.”

“And of course, Sunderland. Just smash them! So it’s going to be an interesting two games and hopefully we’re going to win both.”