Christophe Berra has praised the club’s backroom team for helping him return to action ahead of schedule.

The skipper took to the field in yesterday’s controversial 2-1 defeat to Rangers around a month before he was due to return, playing the entire 90 minutes.

Putting in a performance like he’d never been away, manager Craig Levein lavished praise on his captain, saying: “I can’t speak highly enough of him after his performance after the amount of time he has been out.”

The centre-half was quick to thank the guys behind the scenes for helping him through his rehabilitation after suffering his first serious injury during a long career at the top.

“It was good to be back,” he said. “I’ve worked really hard over the last three and a half months with the physios, especially Craig Maitland and Mikey Williams, our sports science guys.

“They’ve had a big part to play, along with the rest of the medical staff.

“I was always telling the physios that I felt good. I was champing at the bit to push on to the next exercises.

“I’m not through it yet and I still have hard work to put in.”