Salif Diao put pen to paper at the Britannia Stadium earlier today and immediately confessed "I always wanted to come back".

The 30-year old Senegalese midfielder signed a deal which will keep him in the Potteries until at least the summer of 2009.

Salif, a free agent since leaving the Potters at the end of last season, spoke of his delight at sealing the move and revealed why it had taken so long to complete.

Speaking exclusively to stokecityfc.com he says: "I picked up a knee injury towards the end of last season, and I said to myself I would play on to try and get Stoke into the Premier League.

"I knew I would be out for a little while over pre-season if I played on, but it was a risk I was willing to take.

"I went on holiday for five weeks during pre-season to give it some rest, but that made it worse.

"I was told after that I should have kept training and kept it moving, so that was extremely frustrating.

"I worked on my own over the summer to try and build the muscles up in my leg.

"It was difficult because I couldn't have an operation to sort the problem out.

"I had a blood injection to try and speed it up, but even then it would have taken two or three months to get better.

"The main thing is I'm ok now, and I am back here; this is where I want to be."

While the former Liverpool star insists he always knew he would be back, a haunting memory from his time with the Anfield club played a huge role in him not joining City sooner.

"I could have signed before now, but there was no way I was going to come here and take money off the club when I couldn't even train," admits Salif.

"I have a lot of respect for Tony Pulis and Tony Scholes so I didn't want to have money for doing nothing.

"I was in a situation at Liverpool a few years ago where I signed a five year contract and then got injured.

"I was getting money when I wasn't playing and I felt horrible because of it.

"So there was no way I was going to do the same thing here.

"But now I'm fit and ready so it's just a case of me getting back in to the routine and start building myself up to play Championship football again."

Finding himself without a club going into a new season was something Salif has never experienced before, but says City's persistance kept him positive.

Saying: "It was very weird to be honest with you.

"But there was quite a bit of interest in me, none more so than from Stoke and that kept me going.

"There were other clubs apart from Stoke interested in me, including Premier League sides.

"But as much as I want to play at the top level, Stoke is in my heart, and it would have been very, very difficult to turn my back on them.

"My dream is to get back into the Premier League with Stoke, and if I didn't think that was possible I wouldn't have come back."