He said: "I was out for two months and away from the pitch. The injury occurred after the first game in the Asian Cup, then I came back to training and got injured again, so I had to come back to Newcastle, which was very disappointing.

"I never expected this and I was very depressed and disappointed. But this is the life of a footballer and you get injuries.

"I couldn't play until February and I was focused on getting back and waiting for my chance to play for Newcastle again. I am not 100 per cent fit yet, but I will be better as I play more games."

Ki was in fine form before he met up with his international team-mates, but looked rusty on his return in place of the injured Sean Longstaff on what proved to be an eventful afternoon at St James' Park.

The Magpies trailed 2-0 with 25 minutes remaining having missed a first-half penalty, but hit back trough Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez's double to snatch a priceless win.

The former Swansea midfielder said: "We could have easily given up and it could have been heads down. In the dressing room, we said that if we got one goal that a second and third is possible.

"We're very happy with the result, but we're not finished yet. We have to keep going until the last game of the season."

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Damian Spellman, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '1d0a9a0f-673c-4321-a288-11038fcf03d4');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Injury lay-off was a mental battle, says Newcastle\u2019s Ki'});