Ruud van Nistelrooy is unlikely to make his long-awaited Hamburg
debut at Cologne on Saturday.
Coach Bruno Labbadia is reluctant to rush the Dutch striker,
who has not played a competitive game since last year due to a calf
injury, into action and revealed how he would prefer for him to
remain in Hamburg to work on getting back to full fitness rather
than sit on the bench in freezing Cologne.
"As long as there are no late injury-related withdrawals,
then the squad will remain unchanged," said Labbadia.
"And Ruud will remain in Hamburg. He should use these days to
work intensively on his fitness.
"We have spoken at length about it and Ruud sees things
similarly."
The anticipation of the 33-year-old's Bundesliga debut is
growing, but Van Nistelrooy himself is happy to delay his comeback
until he can show the league what he is capable of.
"The coach has told me he only wants to include me when I am
100 per cent and ready to make the difference," he said.
"I accept that because I know that I have got to be well
prepared."
Cologne are also without their star striker, although in
their case, leaving Lukas Podolski out of the squad has not proven
to be such a major issue recently.
They have won their last two games without the Germany
international who, despite recovering from the back injury which
had forced him out of both those games, picked up a foot injury on
Wednesday.
"It was a strong blow (to the foot) so he is not going to be
able to play," confirmed coach Zvonimir Soldo, who will therefore
stick with the same 11 players who have beaten Wolfsburg and
Eintracht Frankfurt recently.
