On the bench that day and in the squad again at Wolves and Villa, the noise and anticipation of the playmaker's return increased 10-fold when he got the call from Roberto De Zerbi with 82 minutes on the clock of our Premier League clash against Leeds United on Monday night.
A minute later - 375 days after his last competitive appearance - 'Madders' was on, straight back into the thick of the action as we tried to find a winner against a Leeds side now with four defeats in their last 23.
He almost did it, as well - breaking into the box in the final seconds, he was challenged by Lukas Nmecha and taken down by clear contact - however, VAR ruled Mmecha touched the ball first, the corner came to nothing - and it stayed 1-1. That point took us two clear of West Ham with two games to go.
Over a year since initially damaging his knee in the first leg of our UEFA Europa League semi-final against Bodo/Glimt - injury kept him sidelined for the final in Bilbao - and 281 days after picking up his ACL in South Korea - Madders is back. Roberto said afterwards he hoped he 'could be crucial for us' in the final stretch of the season.
Writing on his official Instagram account, Madders described his feelings as he pulled on the Lilywhite shirt again.
He said: "After the longest toughest 12 months of my life, the reception you spurs fans gave me yesterday made all the sacrifice & dark days absolutely worth it. Thank you so much. Back where I belong. Thank you to everyone for the support & especially my family & friends for helping me through this journey, wouldn’t have been able to do it without you."