Dominic Solanke spoke to the media at Deutsche Bank Park on Tuesday evening, ahead of our UEFA Champions League MD8 clash against Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday night (8pm UK).
Here's what he had to say...
You like to run, like to press – how close are you to being the player that you want to be again in terms of fitness?
Dominic: “Hopefully soon. I feel good, I feel fit. All of my injury worries have gone away. I was out for quite a long time. I'm obviously not going to get straight up to fitness and sharpness straight away, but I've been training with the team for a bit now and a few games under my belt. I'm feeling good."
You won the game here last season with your penalty - does it feel like you're on a knife edge again and does that make things harder?
Dominic: "We're seeing tomorrow as a positive. Last year we came here and got a great result, and we're looking to do that again tomorrow. It's a great opportunity for us to finish in the top eight, and yeah, we're looking forward to the game more than anything."
Can you tell us how you guys felt going into the game last season? Did you feel like it could have been - and it was - a real turning point for what was, at that time, quite a difficult season?
Dominic: "Yeah, last year we weren't as good as we wanted to be in the league, and we had the European competition to look forward to as well, and that was a huge game in our season. We obviously want to win cups at this club, and I think, like you mentioned, that was a huge part of winning that. We've got fond memories of it, it was a close game, and we managed to just win the game and then go on to win the trophy. We haven't got anything but good things to say about that game."
You were on the sidelines for six months - how desperate are you to make up for lost time and come to the aid of the team right now?
Dominic: "Yeah, it's always difficult being injured, personally, but obviously it's always hard to watch the team and know that you can't really help and do anything to change that. But yeah, I'm back fit now and like I mentioned, I feel good, so I want to do everything I can to help the team. We're only just past the halfway mark and we've still got a lot of games to play and I still believe we can still go on to have a good season. So obviously I'm hoping to play a big role in that, but we're all looking for the positives."