GLEN JOHNSON is confident his injury nightmare is behind him after a successful return to the international stage.

Johnson made his first appearance for England in almost six months as Fabio Capello’s side won 1-0 against World Cup winners Spain at Wembley on Saturday.

The right-back has made only five outings for Liverpool this season after injuring his hamstring three times since the end of the previous campaign.

Johnson admits he found the constant setbacks difficult but is now much more upbeat having been put straight back into the England team.

“I’m very grateful, I’ve had some disappointing times with the injuries but hopefully that is behind me now,” he said.

“I tore my hamstring at the end of last season and in pretty much the same place in pre-season. In rehab I did the same thing again so obviously it’s hard to stay positive and do the right things.

“All I want to do is play football. Some days you have good days and think ‘I’m getting there’ and the next day you’ll have a bad day, so there’s lots of up and downs. But hopefully the worst is behind me now.”

In his absence, Johnson saw Manchester United duo Chris Smalling and Phil Jones both step in at right-back with varying degrees of success.

And when asked if he was worried about losing his place while injured, the Liverpool defender added: “I wasn’t thinking about anything to be honest. I was just thinking about the injury and myself. I’m confident in my ability and the main objective was to get back fit.

“In every position you are going to get people who want one person to play and others who want someone else to play.

“That’s the industry we’re in and there’s nothing I can do about that but all I can do is worry about myself and take it from there.”

Frank Lampard’s 49th-minute header was enough to give England victory, and Johnson said it was a merited reward for not fearing the Spaniards.

“It was a great performance and a great result so the lads are buzzing,” he said. “The lads played well and made it difficult for Spain.

“There is a lot of belief in the squad, we have a lot of fantastic players and the main problem has been believing that really. We've had some fantastic results, we'll take each game as it comes and the longer it goes on the better.

“We went out just to worry about ourselves and not be scared of them, basically."