Alex Gilbey made his first appearance of the season, coming off the bench against Leicester City

The return of captain Alex Gilbey was a welcome one for Dons boss Paul Warne.

The 31-year-old suffered a knee injury in the opening friendly of the summer against Maidenhead in July, an issue which kept him out of the pre-season training camp in Croatia and all of training leading into the new season.

But having come through the last three weeks of training back with the first-team, and a couple of behind-closed-doors games, Gilbey returned to the action with 20 minutes to go against Leicester City on Saturday.

Immediately given the captain’s armband by Curtis Nelson, who has led the side in his absence, Gilbey forced a save from Foxes keeper Jakub Stolarczyk in the second-half, which was as close as Dons came to breaking the deadlock.

Speaking afterwards, head coach Warne admitted Gilbey is not close to being fully up to speed in terms of his fitness after his injury, but knows whatever he can get out of his captain in the meantime is valuable.

“I don’t think Gilbs is anywhere near being fit,” Warne said. “I wanted him on the pitch for his leadership qualities. I know if I can get him 50 per cent fit, I know for 20 minutes he could do something for me. It was great to have him back.

“Some players are bigger than their performances. He’s a proper captain, a proper skipper. I think he had the only shot on target we had in the second-half as well so if that would have gone in, I would’ve looked like a genius! It’s great to have him back.”