CITY Ilkay Gunning for Liverpool return
ILKAY Gundogan is targeting City’s home clash with Liverpool for his comeback.
The Blues midfielder played the last 20 minutes of the friendly match at Girona on Tuesday night, his first outing since he damaged cruciate ligaments in his knee in December.
But he thinks it unlikely that he will make the squad for next Monday’s Etihad Stadium opener against Everton, or even the following Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth.
“I’m in a good way. I still know that it’s a long way to go,” he told City’s official website.
“I was out for eight months so there is no reason to rush now. When I feel good, ready and safe, I’m ready to play and try – as today. That’s also the target for the next weeks.
“There’s an international break in the next two weeks so plenty of time still to use that for training and maybe more games if that’s possible.
“Hopefully after that break I will be ready to join the team fully. I want to be there when my manager and my teammates need me.”
That means Gundogan has effectively ruled himself out of Germany’s World Cup qualifiers against Czech Republic and Norway at the start of September – with the Liverpool game falling on September 9.
Gundogan, who missed the start of last season after dislocating a kneecap, admits that his caution is more of a mental issue than a physical one.
He returned to the City Football Academy early this summer in a bid to be ready for a comeback during the Blues’ pre-season tour, but that failed to materialise.
Now he has missed the start of the season for a second year running after he was ruled out for the entire 2013-14 Borussia Dortmund campaign following back surgery.
“It’s more a personal feeling to be honest,” he said. “At the moment now, where I am now, I know that my knee is safe and everything is good and that I worked hard over the last few months.
“I think it is now a mental thing to join the lads in the games for a few minutes and come out and do some treatment afterwards just to prepare myself the best way.
“That’s my target. I will enjoy every single minute that I get and if it’s the right moment in the next days or weeks to do the same again – it doesn’t matter if it’s a friendly or the Premier League or whatever – then I want to be ready.
“It’s difficult now to say this game or in that time, it’s just a feeling in the training sessions over the next weeks and then hopefully I’m going to be ready soon.”