MANCHESTER CITY’S ILKAY Gundogan has admitted he may never return to his previous level as a player after his injury troubles.
The midfielder played his first game of the season for City when he came off the bench in the second half of Saturday’s 6-0 win over Watford in the Premier League.
Gundogan made just 16 appearances in all competitions last season, having picked up an injury shortly after his arrival from Borussia Dortmund and latterly suffering a cruciate ligament tear.
Injuries have been a constant issue on the 26-year-old’s career and he admits that he may never get back to his best after the latest upset.
“There are doubts if I will be again at the level I had before so, of course that is the case,” he said. ”Because of these ups and downs, more of the downs, it is sometimes frustrating.
“The doubts are at this point even bigger. But I had no other choice. I am a football player. This is what I do. This is what I have done all my life. This is my job. For me, there was no other choice than to try again.
If I said I am the same player as I was a year ago, I would be lying. I mean, through the injury, you don’t feel the same. You don’t feel as though you are the most powerful guy in the world — not that I ever did. I had two injuries on my knee and I know what to do to prepare myself for the games and to warm my knee up and be generally fit.
“I will do everything to be as fit as possible. That could be it for all the injuries! I think I am done now! I am ready to continue playing, to keep fit. To enjoy playing.”
The long spells on the sidelines have had an effect on the Germany international, but was determined to return to action.
“It was a long wait — and tough as well,” he added. “That is why it feels so special to return. I was sad just to watch in front of the TV or in the stands. I am used to playing every three or four days. If an injury takes it away then it is always disappointing and it feels weird.
“To be honest, you don’t feel as part of the group anymore. You are not travelling with the team anymore. You do everything on your own or with the physio. So of course, that is the worst feeling you can have as a football player. So, that is also the reason it was that hard over the months.”
“The worst time was of course the day of the injury or when I knew what exactly happened. When I knew there would be six, seven, eight, nine months out. That was the worst feeling.
“The day after the surgery was not so good either. But then, at one point, you start to do it again. You start to do your rehabilitation. You recover. You have ups and downs, days you feel better, days you feel very bad. I think that is normal. It is not just me.
“I did not have doubts whether I would play anymore. The ACL is a common injury so you have surgery, the doctors know what they are doing. But of course it is long and it is my second knee injury.”
Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:
The “Bring Ronaldo Home” campaign is a scam set up to defraud naive football fans (morons) and The Score should not be publicising it, at least without doing some research. Every Utd fan I’ve seen on twitter are up in arms about it. It was registered as a limited company in the past fortnight and pledges to “honor PayPal refund rules” if Ronaldo doesn’t get signed. It should be noted that said PayPal refund policy expires after 60 days. Also while receiving £10 per pledge, they say they will only refund £7 of it (not that it will matter).
Sid Lowe, journalist quoted this morning “That Ronaldo Home campaign is utter batshit on every level scam/parody/ripoff”
Hi Conal,
In no way are we ‘promoting’ the Bring Ronaldo Home campaign, no more than we are promoting Adidas by highlighting the awfulness of their new Marseille jersey in this piece (http://thescore.thejournal.ie/new-marseille-jersey-909414-May2013/)
We posted the video because any attempt to get Ronaldo back to Manchester United is news.
Steven,
I think your missing his point this is not an attempt to bring Ronaldo back to Manchester United but a scam preying on gullible fans. What he takes issue with would appear to be that you are reporting this as a legitimate attempt to raise money to bring Ronaldo back to United which can be construed as being irresponsible if in fact this is a scam.
Scam potential here.
I threw a few quid into the campaign run for the defence of Paul Kimmage.
Subsequent events not Kimmage’s fault obviously, but an eye opener for anybody putting a hand in their pocket for a crowdfund.
Nuff said.
I’m sure Ronaldo is just dying to trade in Sunny Madrid for Rainy Manchester.
Sad B%#$!#%S……
What’s next? Fans trying to raise the money to buy their club back from evil American owners?…oh wait…
The evil Glazers who financed 5 league titles, 2 league cups and a European cup. Not to mention 2 more European cup finals.
Im not anti-Glazer by any stretch of the imagination but I wouldn’t go giving them too much credit for “financing” the success since they have taken over the club. It is all club generated money that goes in to the club and the Glazers pump sweet f all of their own money in to the club.
They have done a lot to increase revenues (rising ticket prices, greatly increased sponsorship etc…) but they have also placed the club in a lot of debt at a great expense to the club. You can say what you like but they hardly “finance” the success.
All that said as long as they continue to leave the management of the club to those who know how to manage it and don’t begin to bleed the club of any money I think their ownership can at least be tolerated!
Don’t bother Big Pat most people don’t recognize how good the Glazers have been. Spent plenty of money on players keeping the club hugely successful and have made the club into a profit making machine.
As a United fan…what a ridiculous plan! How much will he make for the club? €1,000,000,000???? Not a chance will he! I would sooner give a small donation to a charity than to this…Out of interest, I would wonder what happens to all the money when they don’t raise the total amount!
The club has a backroom team in place for this sort of thing, it should be left to them to decide what players come and go!
So ronaldo says he wants to leave forces his transfer and united want him back? So what’s all the fuss about wanting Rooney out?