Mike Schmid saluted Seb Stegmann after the powerful winger made his long-awaited Esher comeback following a career-threatening injury.

Former England U20s international and Harlequins loan-star Stegmann ended a two-year injury nightmare by returning in Esher’s battling 29-20 defeat at Nottingham on Friday.

The 22-year-old has been fighting back to full fitness after suffering a cruciate injury over two years ago.

Now Stegmann, who came through the Esher junior ranks, hopes to force his way back into the first-team reckoning at Quins.

“Seb was superb. It was great to see him playing again and we all hope he’s on the road back,” said Schmid.

“He’s been so unlucky with injuries, missing almost two years of rugby, but he’s close to being where he was, which was on the verge of being a regular Quins winger.

“He’s a big physical kid, but with a great step and lots of pace. We hope we’ve helped him back to the Premiership.”

Fellow injury victim Sam Ulph returned to action in Wednesday night’s British & Irish Cup trip to Bedford Blues – which Esher lost 62-30 – after a four month lay-off with a groin problem.

But Schmid could yet be without up to 20 players for Saturday’s crunch trip to fellow Championship strugglers Moseley.

And the Molesey Road chief, who joked if his injury crisis got any worse he may be forced out of retirement, admitted Ulph’s comeback and the return of Chris Goodman, was a sign staff shortages were easing.

“Sam was a tremendous asset to us last season with his boot and he is a great communicator,” he said.

“He and Chris are the sort of experienced heads we have been missing. We’re hoping to start getting significant numbers back in two or three weeks time, which is good.”

Tries from Chris Cook and Ollie Lindsay-Hague were not enough for a losing bonus point on Friday.