‘The toughest part of my career and my life’ - Former Preston defender opens up over Portsmouth injury nightmare

But the defender is adamant his nightmare is behind him after he made his return for the Blues.

The 29-year-old completed his comeback from a groin issue in their 1-0 victory over Burton on Tuesday evening.

Indeed, it was the first time Rafferty appeared in the starting XI since September and would go on to feature for the whole full 90 minutes on his return from the sidelines.

After his first Blues appearance for five months, the former Preston and Rochdale full-back has opened up about his Fratton Park injury hell.

He told The News: ‘It was brilliant, it’s been a long-time coming and it felt excellent.

‘It (the body) is fine, I will probably see how it is tomorrow and will have to go for a swim.

‘It feels okay. It’s been really tough for me, probably the toughest part of my career and my life.

‘I’ve just had to get my head down and stay focused on getting myself fit, getting myself better and when the chance comes to be ready to take it.

‘At first, I had a slight issue with my hernia, I thought I could play on with it but it wasn’t right.

‘It would’ve been selfish to play on with because I wouldn’t have been able to play as well as I can.

‘I thought it would be quite a quick turn around and had done four weeks of rehab and when I came back, I struck a ball and my abductor muscle went.

‘It was really unfortunate because I’ve been quite lucky with my injuries in my career and haven’t been injured in my career so it hit me quite hard.

‘It made it harder that the first eight games were brilliant, everything was going really well, I was playing really well, I was enjoying my football but to have that taken away from you was really hard.

‘It’s a short career but all you want to do is play games. I've been lucky enough to come to a club like Pompey and to have that taken away from me was really difficult.’

Prior to his spell on the sidelines, Rafferty had appeared in the opening eight games of the season for Pompey, which had seen the Blues go unbeaten in League One.

And now the right-back is adamant he can play a major role in John Mousinho’s side for the remainder of the campaign.

‘I’ve just got to look forward now,’ he added.

‘For me, I want to play every game until the end of the season, stay fit and win as many games as we can.’