MANCHESTER City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne says he has missed playing football and influencing games while he has been out with a hamstring injury.
The Belgian came off the bench at Newcastle and equalised for the Blues before an inch-perfect pass set up Oscar Bobb’s stoppage-time winner.
De Bruyne, 32, was playing in the league for the first time since the opening day of the season on 11 August.
“I enjoyed myself. It was crazy,” De Bruyne told TNT Sports.
“I missed this. I had a big injury and I needed the time.”
Of his performance, he added: “I think it was more willpower than anything else.
“I know I’m not able to do that for 90 minutes at the moment. I can put in a shift for 30 minutes. I feel it in my lungs, especially with the cold.”
De Bruyne made his return from injury in the FA Cup third-round tie against Championship Huddersfield last Sunday, and set up Jeremy Doku as the Blues won 5-0.
He came on at St James’ Park with his side 2-1 and scored the equaliser with a superb sweeping finish within four minutes and 35 seconds of coming on.
The former Chelsea man then played a superb lobbed pass into the path for Bobb for the winner, and became the first City player to score and assist from the bench since Sergio Aguero against Cardiff in January 2014.
De Bruyne has spent spells on the sideline during his City career but has largely injury-free in the past couple of campaigns.
He was forced off the in the first half of June’s Champions League against Inter Milan, as his side wrapped up the Treble, with a hamstring injury but returned to fitness for the start of the campaign.
He only lasted 23 minutes at Burnley in the opening game of the season before suffering a recurrence of the injury and has spent the past five months out.