After a long and suffering injury break, Christian Vander ran some laps around the training grounds at Werder Bremen practice Thursday morning. "I was able to do some light running training for the first time in six months. I couldn’t even really think of that before hand with the major pain. I could only ride the bike," said the 29-year-old visually relieved. "In the last few weeks I thought I was training for the Tour de France. But now slowly I finally feel like a footballer again."

The advances cannot be overseen but Vander’s return to team training remains questionable. "We don’t need to get ahead of ourselves and just think week to week," said assistant coach Wolfgang Rolff, who ran training for a final time on Thursday while head coach Thomas Schaaf was at an elite coaching forum in Geneva. The Werder keeper, who has been out since the end of March with a pubis bone inflammation, also saw the situation realistically. "While it is much better and I have the feeling that I am on a good road, I still must have some patience, even though I had the football boots on today on the pitch," said Vander.

Also not yet back on the training grounds were Claudio Pizarro and Philipp Bargfrede. While Bargfrede continues to labour under a gastro intestinal infection but may be able to return tomorrow, Pizarro will miss more time with his thigh muscle fibre tear. "He needs a couple days of rest," said Rolff. Wesley and Mikael Silvestre on the other hand don’t have any time to rest. Both new acquisitions as well as Said Husejinovic were ordered in the afternoon by Rolff to complete a run around the Finnbahn.