Stevan Jovetic admitted he is pleased to be playing again after making his Inter debut in Sunday’s pre-season friendly defeat against Galatasaray.

Montenegro international Jovetic joined Inter on an 18-month loan last week after failing to establish himself at Manchester City following a £22 million move from Fiorentina in 2013.

Jovetic, who scored 11 goals in 44 appearances for Manuel Pellegrini’s side, has completed only a handful of training sessions with his new team-mates but Inter boss Roberto Mancini deemed him ready for a return to first-team action when he introduced him as a 64th-minute substitute at the Turk Telekom Arena at the weekend.

And, with his Inter debut now out of the way, Jovetic is looking forward to the start of the Serie A season on August 23 when the Nerazzurri host Atalanta.

“I felt good,” he told his new club’s TV channel.

“I hadn’t played for a while, the last time was with the national team, then just training sessions with Manchester City.

“I’m pleased, given it was my first game, I feel good physically. Obviously there’s still work to do so I can link up well with my team-mates.

“There are three weeks to go until our first competitive game and we’ll need to be at 100 per cent.

“I’m sure we have a good squad, let’s hope we have a good start to the season.”