Erin Cuthbert expressed joy and relief at making her first appearance of the season in Scotland’s impressive 2-0 win over the Czech Republic.

By winning the Women’s World Cup round-one play-off away leg, the Scots are well set up for the return in Paisley on Tuesday, with Sweden the likely opponent for the team that progresses.

Chelsea captain Cuthbert, 28, is yet to feature at club level this season following a knee injury and came on as a substitute in Pardubice. Fellow sub Claire Emslie finished superbly for the Scots’ second after captain Caroline Weir’s stunning opener.

“It’s so good,” Cuthbert told BBC Scotland.

“It’s been such a long summer. It’s always great to come on and play for my country again – I’ll never take it for granted when I get a serious injury.

“I’m just glad to get back on a football pitch. The relief, the amount of self-doubt that you have, the amount of stress – am I going to be back to the same level, how am I going to perform, is my knee going to be alright? All those things run through your head.

“It was a bad one. I was in crutches and a brace for the best part of a month. I lost a fair amount of muscle and over the summer I was trying to rebuild all of that again.

“It’s been a really, really hard journey.”

Emslie scored her first goal since becoming a mum, with her son and mother attending the game in Pardubice.

“I’m incredibly proud of her,” Cuthbert said of Emslie. “I have an enormous amount of respect for her. Everything’s just so impressive – to be a mum, to play at the highest level.”

The Czech Republic were given a late reprieve when the award of a penalty was overturned but, soon after, Cuthbert was “flabbergasted” a late challenge on her in the box did not result in a spot-kick.

And while Cuthbert was “delighted” with the win, she cautioned that 2-0 can be a “dangerous” lead.

“We’re a good team and when we play on the front foot, we can hurt teams,” she added. “The best form of attack is defence.”