Portugal midfielder Danny is eyeing a return to competitive action on September 15 after seven months out injured, he said Wednesday.
The Zenit St. Petersburg player, 29, ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a training session in February and has not played since, although he returned to training last week.
“I hope I’ll be able to play already on September 15,” Danny said on the team website, referring to Zenit’s Russian Premier League away tie against Terek Grozny.
“I’ll wait another one or two weeks to finally start work with the main group. Now there’ll be a short pause and after that I’ll join up with them,” Danny said of his training schedule.
Regarding his hopes for Zenit in Thursday's Champions League group stage draw, Danny said he would like to face “big clubs” like Barcelona, AC Milan or Paris Saint-Germain, but only if Zenit were not left with too difficult a task in reaching the knockout stages.
In 2009, Danny spent six months on the sidelines with a similar knee injury. He has played 103 competitive matches for Zenit, scoring 31 goals.
