Borussia Dortmund's star winger Marco Reus has returned to training for the Bundesliga club and is close to making a comeback on the pitch, according toESPN.
The German international suffered a groin injury in May's DFB Pokal final - which Dortmund lost to Bayern Munich on penalties -and was forced to sit out his country's European Championship campaign as a result.
It was a huge blow for a player who had also missed the World Cup win in 2014 through injury. But the 27-year old was back up and running on Sunday, spending 45 minutes doing laps of the training pitch.
.@woodyinho absolviert individuelles Training. pic.twitter.com/7zlJCxqwjr
The player was originally expected to make his return in August but experienced a number of setbacks on the road to recovery. There has been no word on when Reus is expected to be back in contention at BVB, other than a brief update from manager Thomas Tuchel, before his side's game at Bayer Leverkusen.
Tuchel toldDer Westen:"He still was training without the ball, but he's a few steps ahead of [midfielder] Sven Bender, who wears a splint."
Dortmund lost 2-0 at Bayer Leverkusen in their last outing and may well need their talisman back as soon as possible to compete with Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga, a four point gap already having opened up between the two rivals.
The international break will give Reus an opportunity to continue to work on his fitness ahead of his side's top of the tableclash at the Westfalenstadion against second-placedHertha Berlin on the 14th October.