It’s been a long road back for Darian Durant.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ quarterback will make his first regular season start on Thursday night since tearing his Achilles tendon in the season opener in 2015.

“I’ve been anxiously awaiting this day for a long time,” said Durant after the team’s walkthrough at Mosaic Stadium on Wednesday.

The Riders will host the Toronto Argonauts on Thursday to kick-off the 2016 CFL campaign for the Green and White. Toronto is coming off a 42-20 home loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Week 1.

“It’s been a grind,” said Durant on getting to this point. “It’s been well worth it to be out here with the guys, so I’m happy to be back.

“It’s been a year, it’s been a long time coming and the electricity in this stadium is going to be amazing.”

Durant lamented about the late start time of the game, saying that the extra time to wait hit the field again was almost too much, “I’ll be patiently waiting all day and I’ll be ready to come out here and do what I can to get this team a win.”

Last season when Durant went down, so did the Riders as they plummeted to the bottom of the West Division with a 3-15 record. The team struggled to replace Durant, despite having a strong insurance policy in veteran pivot Kevin Glenn.

Durant looks at himself as just a piece of the puzzle, but all last year did was solidify him more as the face of the franchise and the driver of the team’s success.

“I’m just one guy of 12 or 22 out there on the field that can help my team win,” he said. “I don’t look at it as pressure, I look at it as an opportunity and I’ve been blessed with the talent to be able to hold the franchise together.

“We all know that this is the toughest place to play in the CFL and I’ve embraced that pressure my whole career and it’s nothing different going into this season.”

Despite a lot being placed on Durant’s shoulders, head coach Chris Jones said that they will do their best to make sure it isn’t all on him.

“We’ve got to have good play from Andrew Jones at guard, we’ve got to have good play from Greg Jones at middle linebacker,” said Jones. “Quarterback is a very important piece, don’t let that get understated, he’s got to come in and play, but he’s got to let the system work for him and not try to do anything more than just be Darian Durant.”

Durant has had the past two seasons end with an injury and he has worked over the past year to help prevent those injuries going forward.

“Staying healthy is kind of out of my control, especially with the two type of injuries that I’ve had,” said Durant. “They were freak injuries and that’s something that I can’t worry about. I just have to make sure I put myself in the best possible shape to perform.”

Durant said he cut about 15 pounds during the offseason to take the pressure of his ankles and avoid another Achilles blowout.

Rider Nation will get their first look at the new and improved Darian Durant and the Riders on Thursday night against the Argos. Kick-off is at 8 p.m.