Newcastle United defender Charlie McArthur is delighted to be back in action.

The Scot has seen action for Newcastle's U21s after recovering from a September knee injury.

McArthur arrived a year ago from Kilmarnock and told nufc.co.uk: “I'm absolutely delighted to be back playing. It's been long and frustrating but I've worked everyday to get back and the games are what you want to come back for. Playing against a League One side and doing well, I just want as many minutes as possible and then getting into the league games after that.

“It was tough watching everyone train everyday and playing games but I knew if I stuck at it, I would get back to the level I was playing at before and be even better because, when I was injured, I worked everyday on different things, developing physically, and I'm starting to see the signs of what I worked on during my time injured and it's all falling into place.

“Pre-season has been going well so far and it's good to be back training consistently. There's been tough sessions but the standard has been good, coming back in good shape so we're looking forward to the season ahead.

“Being in Kilmarnock's first-team, I'd always been around older players through the youth system so I'm used to that and it's just about getting back into that environment and the maturity levels and standards have raised from playing with the under-18s last season. I've have to adjust to it but I've enjoyed it."