Jun
4
Sweden can expect their captain, Fredrik Ljungberg, to take part in Euro 2008 after sustaining a rib injury at West Ham United earlier this year. He worked out with the team today and felt great afterwards. In a post-training discussion with reporters, Ljungberg said that his body is now 100% and ready to play in the tournament. He made his original comeback in the friendly match against Ukraine last Sunday, in which he played for 45 minutes. He added today that he could have gone longer against Ukraine, but he was instructed not to.
Sweden is currently in an optimistic state after hearing about the good situation of Ljungberg, as well as those of a few other injured players. Striker Johan Elmander, suffering from an injury to his right foot, is also expected to be back soon. Most analysts have predicted a comeback in time for Sweden’s opening Group D game against Greece (next Tuesday.) Sweden coach Lars Lagerback said that Elmander is already better, but is taking some extra time off as a precaution (instead of today’s training he went through some more rehab.)
The third injury that Sweden has gotten through is a knee injury to striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Lagerback commented on him as well, saying that there are no ill-effects and he is feeling fine. Striker Markus Rosenberg said similar things about his knee, which he had hurt. He had missed the Ukraine match because of it, but now he too feels good.
Not two, not three, but four injured players are returning to the Swedish team to compete for Euro 2008 and all of them say they feel great. The team and its fans must feel really blessed because injury recoveries in such short periods of time don’t happen very often, let alone four times simultaneously. Let’s see if they can take the momentum from the returns and turn them into wins as the tournament kicks off shortly.