Crystal Palace defender James Tomkins made his first appearance since April this afternoon (Monday) as he featured for the Eagles' U23 side against Queens Park Rangers.
The former West Ham defender has been out of action since April, when he sustained a groin injury in Palace's 1-0 win at Newcastle United in the Premier League.
He has not featured for Palace at any level since, although he was included in the matchday squad for the recent 4-0 defeat at Tottenham, with Tomkins an unused substitute for that game.
The central defender was not included in the squad for Palace's 1-1 draw with Wolves at Selhurst Park yesterday (Sunday), but he did start at Harlington Sports Ground for Richard Shaw's side in the Professional Development League as he stepped up his recovery from injury.
Tomkins lined up in defence alongside Sam Woods, who recently made his full debut for the Palace first team, and the 30-year-old played for more than an hour of the game, before being substituted.
But that was planned and there was no injury concern, with Tomkins coming through unscathed, according to Shaw, who spoke of how good it was to have the experienced defender involved with the U23 squad for the game.
“It is great. For us to have James [Tomkins] playing with us is fantastic and he is a great professional," Shaw told Palace TV .
“He always does it right for us. I think the last time he played for us was against Nottingham Forest a few years ago, but he comes in, talks to the lads and leads by example.
“The most important thing for us, for the first team and for the football club, is that James comes through unscathed, and he did that. That is the most important thing, for the first team, to be successful, and we work under that."
Palace lost the game 3-1, with the hosts scoring twice after Tomkins had been substituted.
The Eagles opened the scoring inside the first minute, with Rob Street getting Palace off to the best possible start, firing home from ten yards out after being fed by Jason Lokilo.
Palace's lead did not last long though, with Amrit Bansal-McNulty taking advantage of an error from Eagles goalkeeper Dion Curtis-Henry to level after just six minutes.
Despite the frantic opening to the game, there were no further goals in the first half, with Palace defender Nikola Tavares making an important tackle to deny Bright Osayi-Samuel for the hosts.
Palace had plenty of defending to do though, with QPR dominating large spells of the first half, although Tomkins and his fellow defenders kept the hosts from adding to the score in the first half.
Henry also made some good saves in the Palace goal, but the Eagles were undone by two goals in the space of four minutes in the second half, as Lewis Walker and substitute Dylan Duncan sealed the win for QPR, with Tomkins looking on from the sidelines as the hosts clinched all three points in the Professional Development League clash.
Tomkins will now continue to build up his fitness with the first team, ahead of Palace's next Premier League fixture at home against Norwich City on Saturday.
