Created on 15-12-2009 at 00:00 AM
Uli Hoeneß stopped for a closer and better look when he saw Franck Ribéry out on the practice ground on Monday. “Ça va?” the club president called to the FCB superstar, still sidelined with an injury dating back to the summer. Ribéry’s answer was clearly to Hoeneß’s liking. fcbayern.de heard similarly positive news from the 26-year-old once he had completed his strenuous and demanding workout.
“I’m more than fine,” reported the Frenchman, voicing hopes of a first squad appearance in two months when Bayern take on Hertha BSC Berlin at the weekend. “I’m missing it a lot,” he explained, “I’d be overjoyed if I could get back out onto the pitch in front of the Allianz Arena crowd for 20 minutes or so.” That would at least provide a happy ending to a miserable first half of the campaign for Ribéry.
The midfielder has been consistently hampered by a recurring inflammation of the patellar tendon in his left knee this term. He has made just five starts for Munich so far, and last appeared in the home meeting with Köln on 3 October. “I’ve had some very difficult months,” Ribéry reported, but the trend has turned sharply upwards in the last two weeks.