Andre Bikey will be donning Jamshedpur FC colours in Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18. The Cameroonian defender has been a part of NorthEast United FC and FC Pune City in the past and has also played under Jamshedpur head coach, Steve Coppell during his time with Reading in England. The robust defender sat down with indiansuperleague.com recently and spoke about his delight at being a part of the upcoming season after missing out on the previous campaign due to injury.

“It’s great! I’m very happy to be back here. Last year was difficult for me, I had an injury and had to undergo an operation and then get my feet back to becoming stronger to make a comeback. It was extremely difficult especially with an injury like mine, not a big one but a complicated one. Right now, I feel great and I’m excited for the league and [want to] improve myself like every year,” Bikey said.

Renowned for his dominance in the backline, Bikey is also comfortable slotting into a defensive midfield role. While elaborating on his versatility, he added: “At the beginning of my career, I was a pure midfielder. But because of my body and physicality, they decided to put me at the back. So the last 8-10 years, I’ve been playing at the back. So sometimes if the team needs me, I play in the middle. I’m a professional and I have to play like that.”

Looking ahead at the new campaign with Jamshedpur, Bikey spoke glowingly about the spirit in the camp. “It’s always positive, and it will always be positive. We’ve been together for five weeks now and everyone is excited. The JFC group is really great. Everyone has a positive approach and I know it’s a new club and everyone expects us to do something, but football is football. In football you never know and like I said, we’ve already set our minds. It won’t be easy as anything is possible in football, so we need to trust ourselves and our ability,” he said.

Jamshedpur begins their campaign against Bikey’s old club, NorthEast United FC at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Saturday.