Rafinha nearing Bayern return

The Brazilian suffered a partial tear of the ligaments in his left ankle in the Bundesliga home match against Bayer Leverkusen just over four weeks ago. 

The 33-year-old was back out on the grass at Bayern's Säbener Strasse training ground as he took the next step towards his comeback

The 33-year-old completed parts of the squad programme for the first time, warming up and performing passing drills before he continued his individual rehab in the performance centre.

"Finally! I was sidelined for almost four weeks because of my ankle injury, and I was very glad to complete the first few parts of team training. It's good for me," said the right-back. 

"Thank God I'm not too far behind, I'm fit," said the defender.

"Of course the situation is different when you haven't been on the pitch for three weeks. But I've worked well with Thomas Wilhelmi, it's going well. I think I'm ready for next week."

Rafinha hopes to be fit for Bayern's next Bundesliga match. 

"I'm very happy to be back on the pitch. And now we'll go full throttle again because we must return to winning ways", he added.