Dave Grohl has opened Foo Fighters’ headline Glastonbury set by thanking Florence Welch for filling in for them in 2015 when he broke his leg.

The group had been due to headline the festival two years earlier, but just weeks before the performance Grohl broke his leg after falling on stage during a show in Sweden – and they were forced to cancel.

Florence And The Machine were parachuted in as a last-minute replacement and sang the band’s hit Times Like These to mark their absence.

Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl thanked Florence Welch ( Jonathan Brady/PA)

Grohl appeared on stage alone and said: “I’m about two years late, sorry…traffic was a bitch.

“For all of you who were here in 2015, sorry I missed you but I watched that show on my laptop as I was sitting in a wheelchair with a broken leg and it was beautiful.

“My friend Florence got to headline that year and I was very happy because I thought she should have headlined anyway.

Florence Welch
Florence and The Machine filled in during 2015 (Yui Mok/PA)

“As I was sitting in my wheelchair watching that show on TV and her singing one of our songs, I thought she sounded way better than we ever have.

“So I thought I’d come out tonight singing that song back to Florence.”

Grohl then began a stripped back version of Times Like These with just his guitar for accompaniment, before eventually being joined by the rest of the band.

Foo Fighters
The band have finally made it to Glastonbury (Sergeant Rupert Frere RLC/MoD Cr/PA)

The group then launched straight into some of their biggest hits, including All My Life and Learn To Fly.

Grohl promised a plethora of hits to come, telling the crowd: “It’s going to be a long night, I think we should just play until they kick us off the stage.”

Foo Fighters are closing the festival’s Saturday line-up from the Pyramid Stage, graced by Radiohead on Friday and which will welcome Ed Sheeran on Sunday.