Neven Subotic is back. Eight months and 10 days after suffering a serious injury in the Bundesliga game at VfL Wolfsburg, the defender has returned to action. He made his comeback from injury in BVB’s preseason friendly at Heidenheim  (4-3) on Saturday.

Neven Subotic’s long road to recovery has come to an end. On 9 November 2013, the Dortmund centre back suffered a torn cruciate ligament as well as a capsule injury following a challenge with Wolfsburg’s Ivica Olic.

But as of Saturday, 19 July 2014, 6.54 pm, that is history now. “It was over much too soon. I would have liked to play a bit longer today. But it is better not to rush things,” said the 25-year-old about his 16-minute comeback in Heidenheim which came as a bit of a surprise for him. “Yesterday I was told that I would not play. This morning I completed a small training session, and it looked fine. I’m happy I made the trip and that I got a bit of the atmosphere. It was great to hear people chanting your name again after such a long time.”

“He was grinning like a Cheshire cat”
BVB coach Jürgen Klopp was also “happy to have Neven back. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat, and was immediately in the thick of action. That’s Neven! He went into every tackle and was fully charged up.”

Subotic said: “My mind was everywhere. I wanted to help the team as good as possible but I have to get accustomed again to play against opponents hurling themselves into tackles. It’s impossible to create this competitive environment in training. It’s a great feeling to be back. It was great fun and I hope I get the opportunity to play a full half in the next game.”

Accidental challenge by Wolfsburg’s Olic
”I wanted to head the ball away and crashed into Olic,“ is how Subotic remembered the incident on 9 November 2013. “And that very moment, and I’m sure there was no intent on his part, he made a backward movement and I had no time to react and tense up my knee. I already felt a radiant pain while in the air. My body seemed to explode. Even before I got to the ground I knew that something must have happened. I’m not the type going down on the ground for nothing. At that moment I saw in front of me this phantom I fortunately had never met before: a torn cruciate ligament injury. I had never felt such pain before in my life.”

“Commitment to the most vulnerable”
Subotic did not let his injury bring him down but devoted himself on his foundation that is caring for the poorest of the poor in Africa. “Peace and prosperity are not a given,” said Subotic. “And we, who live in abundance, have a commitment to the most vulnerable of society – and in most countries of the world these are the children.”

In 2006, he started to support a children’s home in Mainz, and since 2008 Subotic has been working as an ambassador for the “Kinderlachen e.V.” organisation based in Dortmund. “When I realised how easy it is to help, I got the idea for my foundation. It allows everybody to engage in a specific project.”

You can find more information on www.nevensuboticstiftung.de