“The problem is…” – Kevin De Bruyne opens up on road to full recovery from injury and regular Manchester City action

Kevin De Bruyne has this week discussed his road to full recovery from hamstring surgery, and his plans to get back to regular Manchester City action across 90 minutes.

The Belgium international has returned to action for Pep Guardiola’s side by contributing immediately to goal mouth action, scoring and assisting in his two appearances across two competitions this month.

Returning to action against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup third round in early January, De Bruyne combined with fellow countryman Jeremy Doku to send City into the fourth round of the competition.

In his second appearance, and with Manchester City trailing 2-1, De Bruyne entered into a contest against Newcastle United at St James’ Park, scoring the equalising goal and providing the pin-point ball for Oscar Bobb to slot home.

But with Manchester City entering an even more decisive and hectic period of their season, Kevin De Bruyne will be expected to contribute to contests every few days and for much longer than his 20 minute cameo appearances earlier this month.

Speaking to ManCity.com this week, De Bruyne admitted that while he is now better prepared ahead of Manchester City’s matches, the problem remains that he is being required to get back up to being expected to play contests every three days.

“I think I’m better prepared. The problem is our schedule. We live from match to match. We have to play every three days,” De Bruyne admitted. “Because we always have to recover from those efforts, we don’t have time to train. Never time to really strengthen your body properly.”

He continued, “Even if you’re injured for four or five weeks during the season, after a few weeks you have that drive again to play as quickly as possible. That wasn’t the case. I knew I really had three to four months to train my body properly, hopefully come out better and stronger.

“After about ten years at this pace, I might have needed that. To get everything back on track. Mentally it has just become calm. Having no stress for a few months makes a difference.”

De Bruyne and his Manchester City colleagues are currently away on a warm weather training camp in Abu Dhabi, as the club prepare for their return to competitive action on Friday night when an FA Cup fourth round meeting with Tottenham in the capital.

A home tie against Burnley will then follow in the Premier League, before the club take on a hectic February fixture schedule that will see them compete in multiple competitions including the UEFA Champions League where FC Copenhagen await in the first-leg of the round of 16.