The longest gaps between first-team football appearances for one club

“Hope you can share other such longest gaps in appearances for the same club without leaving,” tweets Chittaranjan following Phil Jones’s return to Manchester United action after a 712-day absence.

Here you go …

745 days: Joe Perry flags up that QPR’s Luke Young was sidelined and struggled with a hip injury from 24 March 2012 until his return on 8 April 2014.

910 days: Rangers’ Ian Durrant was infamously injured by Neil Simpson against Aberdeen on 8 October 1988 and only made it back to the first team on 6 April 1991 (hat tip to David Ferguson). A rivalry between the clubs has sustained itself ever since.

1,120 days: “John Kennedy of Celtic had more than three years between successive appearances for the club,” writes Rhuaraidh Fleming. “He played in the Old Firm derby on 28 March before suffering a horror tackle on his international debut for Scotland on 31 March 2004. He wouldn’t return to action until 22 April 2007.”

1,221 days: Due to an injury crisis, the Wycombe manager, Gareth Ainsworth, brought himself out of retirement to play in their Checkatrade Trophy game against Northampton on 30 August 2016, having hung up his boots at Adams Park on 27 April 2013. “[The appetite to play] never disappears and you always think you can do it,” said Ainsworth. “I probably have to say thanks to my Sunday league team as well because they have kept me pretty fit and I have not let the game go.” Thanks again to Joe for that one.

1,455 days: “At the beginning of the 1984-85 season, the professional players in Spain called for a strike, so the second round was played with amateur and youth players,” recalls Jordi Gómez. “Most of them had their only first-team experience that day, but a few proved their skill and got a chance to play