Robben nears return to action

Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben is targeting a January comeback to training as he continues to recover from a serious hamstring injury.

Robben was injured in a friendly against Hungary before the 2010 FIFA World Cup but was included in the Netherlands’ squad for South Africa nonetheless.

He played in his country’s loss to Spain in the final, but the full extent of his injury was discovered upon returning to club side Bayern.

He was diagnosed as having a large tear in his hamstring and has not taken any part in Bayern’s early season Bundesliga struggles, with the German giants already 12 adrift of table-toppers Borussia Dortmund.

But Robben remains optimistic and hopes to resume training after the league’s winter break, which concludes in January 2011.

“I’ve noticed that there are a lot of people out there who supposedly know every little detail about my injury,” Robben told Radio538.

“So many things have been said that it was hard for me to keep up with it at one point. It’s taking a very long time for me to make my comeback, but we knew that when we started my recovery process. Everything’s going according to our schedule.”

“The plan is for me to resume squad training after the winter break. The five-centimetre hole is no longer there.”

Robben spoke positively of his recovery programme: “I just started running exercises and I’m rather busy at the moment. The injury is hardly causing me any problems and it doesn’t really hurt. It never did and that’s quite strange considering the situation,” he said.

“It’s a difficult situation for me. The injury doesn’t trouble me and I want to go out there to play football. Unfortunately, that’s not possible and that’s really tough.”

“I had an amazing campaign last season and I’m really sad that I’ve to miss the first half of this term.”