Borussia Dortmund captain Marco Reus has said he has recovered from an ankle injury and aims to play again in their Bundesliga restart on January 22 against Augsburg.
Reus, 33, has only played twice in the Bundesliga since mid-September and had to tell Germany coach Hansi Flick he was not available for the World Cup in Qatar, naming missing another big event “painful.”
But he is fit now and in full training at the team’s winter break training camp in Marbella, Spain.
“I am feeling good and have taken part in all units. I am very happy the way things are going at the moment,” Reus said there.
“It wasn’t easy because there were constant setbacks. I did a lot over Christmas to reach a good level. Now I am happy to be with the team and catch up. For that the training camp is good for me.”
Reus is among several Dortmund players returning from injury as coach Edin Terzic has a full squad available.
That gives Reus hope that Dortmund can rebound from a modest first part of the season they ended in sixth place, and nine points off the top, after losing their last two games.
“We must lay the foundations here for a very very good second part of the season because we have to make up a lot of ground. We must catch up from day one. There are no excuses,” Reus said.
“We need more intensity, greed, commitment in one-on-one situations and we have to act as a unit again. There are simply too many games where we had outliers.”
Reus said team morale has also been boosted by the return of striker Sebastien Haller from two operations and chemotherapy after a testicular cancer diagnosis before the start of the season.
“We were so happy to have him back. The way he has come back with a mental strength is really great. But we’d all do well to give him a bit of time until he finds his rhythm,” Reus said.
