Goncalves: “The Hearts supporters have been good to me”

Hearts’ Portuguese defender Jose Goncalves says he is delighted to have returned to action after six months out with various injuries. The 21-year-old has been struggling with hamstring, hip and toe problems, and has been left frustrated by his time out of the game.

He recently made his return for the club in a reserve team match, and was relieved to be back: “To play one game, to even touch the ball was all I wanted to do and I am delighted to finally return to action,” he said.

The Portuguese under-21 international has targeted his side’s match with Dunfermline at the end of the month as his comeback game: “I need more confidence and practice in training and after that I’ll be okay. I feel all right. I am back in full training. I played 65 minutes with the reserve team this week and I am just happy to be back now.”

“I knew after the operation that it would take time and when my body was better I could start running and working on fitness again. I wasn’t worried about that but I was eager to play again.”

“The physios here were having to tell me to wait, but when you are a professional footballer, you have to know if your body is 100 per cent. You need to test it and until now I have known that I wasn’t 100 per cent. You don’t want to push things too hard, it’s better to go easy and build your condition gradually.”

Injury setbacks

After moving to Scotland in January, Goncalves made a good impression in Edinburgh before being sidelined with various injuries. The defender missed the last few months of the season, including the Jambos’ Scottish Cup final win over Gretna.

“I missed the end of the season, the Scottish Cup final, the Champions League qualification and the Under-21 European Championships with Portugal. I think I’ll have to put that down as only one part of my football life and learn from it. I watched the games in Switzerland and it was very hard,” he said.

But after spending six weeks in Switzerland, the country in which he was raised, working under Swiss national team physio Daniel Griesser, Goncalves is finally able to focus on the future, and helping Hearts’ title challenge.

“I wanted to go to Switzerland because I could be with my family there. It was better for my mentality. I was working only with Daniel because I know him very well and he’s a good physio, that’s another reason why I wanted to go to there. We were out working every day.”

“I feel I can look forward now. I just want to play, get back in Europe, see us scoring goals and win every game. The supporters have been good with me, stopping me in the street and at matches to ask when I am coming back. That makes you want to get back even quicker.”