| He said: “It’s been a tough 14½ months. When I originally injured my knee during training we initially thought I’d be out for a month, then it became four months but it ended up being a lot more than that. It was difficult when people kept asking me ‘when are you going to be back?’ and I didn’t have an answer for them as I kept having setback after setback but at least they were still asking and that spurred me on as it would have been a lot worse if they’d not been asking at all!
“The medical team here have been fantastic and have helped me through it all. Now that I’m back playing, it’s important for me to take things step by step and build up my game time again. I’m really looking forward to going down to Cardiff. The boys were disappointed with the result against the Blues at home, especially following on from the great win against Munster the week before. Our backs are somewhat against the wall at the moment, we need wins and league points and we’re going down there with a lot of determination to turn that result around.”
Warriors head coach Hugh Campbell added: “It’s great to have Donnie back. We’ve been in the situation that a lot of our best players have been on the injury list for some time. Even now we’ve got what are probably three of our most potent backs – Rory Lamont, Graeme Morrison and Scott Barrow – all out through injury. However that’s what squads are all about, being able to fill the gaps when you’ve got a man down.
“In our last match against Cardiff, we lost 28-23 so got the bonus point but we had a slow start to the game and it just took us some time to get into it. Cardiff have been improving throughout the season, especially with their 28-9 win over the Ospreys and a 41-23 win over the Dragons so it’ll be a very tough game but our guys ready for them.”
The squad also sees a return from long-term injury of prop Ben Prescott as he is named in the list of substitutes.
Glasgow Warriors team to play Cardiff Blues:
15 Graydon Staniforth; 14 Hefin O’Hare, 13 Spencer Davey, 12 Andy Henderson, 11 Mike Roberts; 10 Dan Parks, 9 Sam Pinder; 1 Kevin Tkachuk
2 Scott Lawson, 3 Euan Murray; 4 Dan Turner, 5 Craig Hamilton; 6 Steve Swindall, 8 Jon Petrie (Captain);7 Donnie Macfadyen.
Substitutes from: Lee Harrison, Fergus Thomson, Ben Prescott, Gregor Hayter, James Eddie, John Beattie, Iain Monaghan, Calvin Howarth, Iain Kennedy
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