Cometh the hour, cometh the Max. Glasgow Warriors were already 47-0 down to Leinster and heading for an ignominious Champions Cup exit by the time Max Williamson entered the fray after 60 minutes on Friday night. It was a sidenote on a night to forget for Franco Smith’s side but a significant moment for Williamson as he returned to competitive action after five months on the sidelines after breaking – and then re-breaking – his thumb. While the rest of his team-mates looked beaten and dejected by that point, the Scotland lock gambolled around the Aviva turf like a new-born lamb, almost exhausting himself in the process. “Obviously it was a difficult situation to come back into but just to be playing again was fantastic,” he said. “I think I was a bit excited when I came on. I was flying about for the first 10 minutes and then I realised how tired I was obviously having not played in a while! But it was really good to be back out there.” Broken bones are an occupational hazard for rugby players but to injure the same part of the body twice in quick succession is either hugely unfortunate or evidence that the thumb hadn’t quite healed as first thought. “I broke it initially in the South Africa game and then in January I re-broke it,” he added. “It's really hard to see on the video how I broke it the second time but it was the first live maul back, I got a big bang and it was kind of sore but not too bad. “We were all thinking it'll be fine, we'll get scans in case, and then I was looking over at the radiologist and their face was not how I expected it to be. So, I was like, ‘oh no, here we go again’. “That meant I had to wait even longer the second time around so that was a bit of a setback. But it went pretty quickly and it's nice to finally get back out there.” The timing could work out well for Glasgow. Although their European journey has come to a shuddering halt, there is still the small matter of a United Rugby Championship title to defend. “Everyone gets injured so I guess it was a good chance for me to recover the body and develop some physical things,” added Williamson. “And I'm now fresh coming back into the end of the season so that was the positive spin we tried to put on it. “It’s four more games then we're into the playoffs so each week is going to be extremely important in how we prepare for the games ahead. We're going back [to Leinster] in four weeks' time so it's going to be a quick turnaround for us to improve.” One of the easiest decisions Williamson has made recently was signing a two-year contract extension. “I was always committed to staying as I love it here, especially with what we've been building the last couple of seasons,” he added. “To stay for a couple more years is really exciting.”