Emerson plays an hour for the Primavera

The full-back played the first 60 minutes at Stadio Tre Fontane as the Giallorossi fell to a narrow defeat: his first proper match appearance since rupturing his cruciate on the final day of last season.

And, having successfully come through the match on Friday, the 23-year-old is looking forward to putting his spell on the sidelines behind him.

“I feel good: the knee has reacted well and I’m pleased,” Emerson said afterwards. “Now I’m back I feel good, I’ve been out almost six months with injury and it was a difficult spell. Now I am working everyday with the guys in training.

“I wanted to play between 45 minutes and an hour – in the end I played an hour and I feel good. I could have played longer but before the game we had our plan and we wanted to keep to that.”

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Emerson will be on the bench for Saturday’s Serie A meeting with Lazio, and feels he is now ready to make his return to first team action.

“I want to thank the Primavera guys for having me alongside them, for me it was been a nice experience to come back and play a competitive game with them,” he noted.

“I was with the squad almost three weeks ago [for the Fiorentina game] and since then I have been with the group, training well. Every day I feel better and after today I feel even closer to being back to 100%.”