Corentin Tolisso is confident he will "play games for Bayern Munich again this season" as the FIFA World Cup winner targets a return from his serious knee injury before the end of the 2018/19 campaign.
In the wake of helping France scale the summit of world football in Russia last summer, Tolisso had been expected to play a central role in Bayern Munich's Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League challenges this season.
Instead, his teammates have eased to the top of the league table while he has spent the last half-year working his way back to fitness after suffering a knee ligament injury in the Matchday 3 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
Bayern have just eight Bundesliga games remaining this season, but Tolisso is sure he will pull on the iconic red shirt again this term, even if he is wary of rushing back into action.
"I don't want to go as quickly as possible, because I want to be as fit as possible, but I'm sure that I'll play games for Bayern again this season," said the 24-year-old, who was a 2017 summer arrival from Lyon.
"I haven't looked at my recovery plan at all up to now, because I would start to think about things too much."
Recovery from the first major setback of his career has been a slog though for the France international midfielder, who will watch from the sidelines this weekend when Bayern take on title rivals Borussia Dortmund.
The sapping routine of months of gym work and medical treatment was finally broken at Bayern's winter training camp in Doha when Tolisso was able to get back out onto the pitch even if it was not to work with the rest of Niko Kovac's squad.
"Suddenly I was like a different person. Finally to feel the grass under my feet and to be out in the fresh air," he explained. "For four months, I felt like I was in prison."
Tinadimruz
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Wish you all the best. Welcome
BayernJosh234
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Welcome back Son. We have long wait for you
Abdullahs
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Tolisso has basically no injury history, Rafinha in his while career barely, Coman afaik didn't have big injuries before the Syndesmosis thing. Even Robben hasn't been seriously injured for a while now and he was said to be made out of glass.
yummybe
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He'll probably get decent playing time given how injury prone James, Thiago and Javi are. Plus Goretzka and Sanches wasn't been entirely injury free lately. It's unbelievable that Bayern can have so many players with constant injury problems.
wulover
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ACL tear takes a very long time to be fullt fit, or more accurately at your best though That's great! Just in time to be at 100% for the 22 WC
nowhere
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Why do Bayern keep buying these injury boyos It's not like he had a history of injuries before this one. If anything you could ask questions about the conditioning/medical staff at Bayern, but I'm not sure it's particularly relevant in this case.
Christophers
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Yeah, it's ridiculous. Bayern are worse than Arsenal with injuries. We pretty much take the top spot when it comes to injuries
Worldmend
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Wish we would loan him to Wolves, if they were interested. I had a comment the other day about how I think he would fit their system.
Theodosis
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Don't you think you guys are buying Rode this summer? Don't the occupy the same role? I think Renato would be great at Frankfurt but would like to see him in Bosz's Leverkusen!
Rurhsid
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sanchez i belive is gone in the summer, belive our starting midfield 3 will be coco, tiago and goretzka, if he keeps up his form
Lawrencium
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PL didn't work so another Bundesliga team perhaps. He's still 21, he will get his chance. i would take him Kovac doing us a favour and loan him to Frankfurt? I think he'd fit in quite well. One can dream, however not sure if we really want to develop your players lol Actually, that’s not a bad idea at all. Frankfurt will definitely play international next season, maybe even in the CL. The SGE definitely needs quantitative and qualitative improvement in their midfield.
lively
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He might make it hard for Goretzka go get enough playing time, he had some excellent matches before the injury. Sanches, however, is screwed. I think we should loan Sanches again.
combination
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I've been there. It is pretty painful watching your teammates and friends out there playing without you. There really is no better feeling getting back out there, no matter the sport, after a long injury.