Ben Foster is tantalisingly close to playing for
United’s reserves, a huge step on his road to recovery after eight
months out following a serious knee injury.
Foster, who underwent cruciate knee ligament surgery
in the summer, has been training hard for months now and is itching
to get back into action. "All is going well," he told
MUTV. "I've been training for the last
two or three months. I started full time training about six weeks
ago.
"All been good so far, no niggles or pain, so I'm looking to play a
reserves game pretty soon.” The 24-year-old is yet to play for the
first-team, despite being a United player for almost three years.
Impressive spells on loan with Watford raised his profile to the
extent that he earned his first England cap a year ago – which came
in a friendly against Spain, ironically at Old Trafford.
The temptation, for Sir Alex Ferguson as much as Foster, is to
return as soon as possible. But United’s medical staff don’t want
to rush the former Stoke City keeper at the risk of re-injury.
"It's a serious injury,” he added. “I've been out for eight months.
I always knew it would be tough this season. I've got to the stage
now where I'm itching to go, but the physios are just having to
hold me back. It's frustrating, but you have to listen to
them.”
United’s Reserves play Liverpool next week, a game Foster would
love to play in. But it is likely to come too soon, and there is
more vital work to be done on the training ground before Foster is
completely ready for his comeback.
“The Liverpool game on Tuesday for the Reserves would have been
ideal, but the medical staff just want me to have a couple more
weeks in training. “I've got to start from where I left off at the
start of last season. I felt confident in myself in any given
situation. Eight months out knocks you a bit. You forget tiny
little things about your game that you need to think about.
“I'm working on my sharpness and my handling in training now.
There's a few things I'm going to work on. Kicking, cross-taking
with players around me. I've got to do a bit of that, and then I'll
hopefully be ready to play for the reserves.”
Foster can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and United very
shortly could have at their disposal one of the best young
goalkeepers in the game.