TO most people associated with Sunderland, November’s 3-1 win at Crystal Palace was one of the high points of the season so far. For full-back Patrick van Aanholt, however, it represented one of the darkest moments of his career.

As he attempted to tackle Palace winger, Wilfried Zaha, van Aanholt fell awkwardly and dislocated his shoulder. Immediately whisked away to hospital, he admits he cannot even remember the game, such was the pain inflicted by the injury.

The initial prognosis was that he would be sidelined for three months, but in the end, he returned to first-team action within eight weeks after a quicker-than-expected recovery.

Despite not having taken part in a full training session, he was included in the starting line-up for Sunday’s FA Cup third-round tie with Leeds, and his impact could hardly have been any greater as he scored the only goal of the game.

“I’m very pleased to be back,” said van Aanholt, who joined Sunderland in a £1.5m summer move from Chelsea. “It’s been a quick recovery, but it’s still felt like a very long one for me because I’m not used to getting injured.

“I’m very happy to be back, and thankfully it hasn’t taken as long as we thought at the time. I was supposed to be out for 12 weeks when it first happened, but in the end I made it back in eight so I’m four weeks ahead of schedule. I’ve been doing a lot of work with the physio, and we made a plan together and stuck to it. I managed to get fit quite quickly.

“I was meant to start training with the group on Monday, but the gaffer just called me up and said, ‘How do you feel about training on Friday and then playing in the game at the weekend?’

“I said, ‘I’ll see how I feel after training, and if I feel comfortable enough, I’ll definitely play’. If I hadn’t felt good, I would have waited another week but I felt great and wanted to try it.”

As a result, van Aanholt lined up on the left-hand side of Sunderland’s defence against Leeds, with his presence providing some of the balance and attacking thrust that had been conspicuously lacking in his absence.

While the likes of John O’Shea, Anthony Reveillere and Billy Jones have all slotted in to the left-back berth to reasonable effect in the last two months, none can boast the kind of natural affinity for getting forward and delivering crosses into the box that makes van Aanholt such a potent attacking asset.

His match winner against Leeds came at the end of a typically lung-bursting break into the box, and he was the key to setting up a succession of first-half opportunities that should have seen Sunderland put the game to bed before half-time.

“I wasn’t going to hold back in my first game back,” he said. “Making lots of runs and trying to get forward, that’s my game, so I was always going to be looking to do that as soon as I got back.

“Everyone knows that I like to get forward and I’m happy to have been able to do that against Leeds. Hopefully, I showed to everyone that I’m back and ready to help out the team.”

He will step up his training over the next few days, and will retain his place in the team for Saturday’s Premier League game with Liverpool provided he does not suffer any adverse reaction to last weekend’s display.

Sunderland have claimed just one league win in his absence – last month’s Tyne-Wear derby victory over Newcastle – with the left-back position having provided a major headache because of a lack of natural replacements.

“It’s been a strange situation,” said van Aanholt. “Anthony moved across to play at left-back and did very well, but then he got injured too. It’s been difficult, but that’s what happens – you know you’re going to get injuries along the way and, as a squad, you have to deal with it. I’ve got my chance to be back in the team now, and I’m happy to have taken it.”