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Robin van Persie may be on course to be back in action by the start of April according to Holland coach Bert Van Marwijk.
The Arsenal striker, who has not played since November when he sustained ankle ligament damage, was thought to be available to return to playing at the end of April.
However some positive news on the 26-year-old's rehabilitation has revealed he may be back to see through a larger portion of the Gunners' campaign should there be no problems.
"I spoke to him on the phone last week and he is improving all the time and feeling better," said Van Marwijk.
"I hope that he will play at the beginning of April and he feels this is maybe possible."
The news will come as a major boost to Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who all but ruled out the possibility of the Dutchman playing another game this season at the time of his injury.
Important
Van Persie has clearly been missed at the Emirates since he sustained his injury, with a transition to a centre forward role regarded as a success, something Wenger has struggled to replace since his injury.
But with the Gunners still just six points behind league leaders Chelsea, his return could benefit one last push at the title and the Champions League, should they remain in the competition.
The news also came as a boost for Van Marwijk, who regards the former Feyenoord forward as an important part of the national team's plans with the World Cup in South Africa this summer rapidly approaching.
"He is a very important player for me so it is very important for me that he is fit," he said.
www.skysports.com
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Robin van Persie's recovery from an ankle injury is progressing well and the striker could be back in action for the Gunners in late April.
The striker will begin intensive fitness work soon and Wenger is hopeful for a late spring date for his return if everything stays on track.
“If you ask me is it the beginning of April, I would say categorically no because he has not started any real fitness work yet,” said Wenger at his Friday press conference.
“Once he starts that, it will take at least six weeks.
“Maybe [he will be back] at the end of April if all goes well. If there is no set-back, he should be back before the end of the season but it is very difficult to predict."
www.goal.com
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Robin van Persie maybe wants to end his career at Excelsior. Excelsior is a Dutch first division club (same level as the English Championship) in Kralingen, Rotterdam. Van Persie played as a kid for Excelsior. At the age of 13, he went to the youth academy of Feyenoord.
Van Persie played together with Mounir El Hamdaoui (AZ Alkmaar) and Said Boutahar (Willem II) at Excelsior. Both are youth friends of Robin and with those two friends, Robin wants to play for Excelsior at the end of his career.
Van Persie: "Excelsior is in my heart. I like the idea of ending my career at Excelsior with my friends. Excelsior is the only club in the Netherlands that I want to play for. The main thing there is to love the game of football and that's also the main thing for me."
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Robin van Persie snubbed offers to join Chelsea and Manchester City last summer.
The Arsenal striker instead decided to sign a four-year contract at the Emirates, which put him on wages of around £70,000 a week.
Van Persie, 26, was also the subject of interest from Serie A, with Juventus and Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan also watching his contract situation.
The Dutchman said: "It is good that four teams were really interested in me but I had to turn them down. It's not as easy to leave Arsenal as you maybe think.
"Even if you want to leave, as a player, I don't think it is easy because when you move to Arsenal you are led there by your heart."
Van Persie is still out after damaging his ankle on international duty back in November but could yet feature before the end of the season.
But he believes his awful injury record may prevent him becoming a great player.
He added: "When you look at great players, they are always fit, always sharp.
"When you play 50 games a season, you can score more goals and get more assists, so it follows that you are more important to the team.
"Everything starts with your fitness and some players are lucky like that. I hate it but I can't do anything about it because this is my situation."
www.newsoftheworld.co.uk
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For somebody who has been through the rough and tumble of English Premier League for six years, Robin van Persie comes across as surprisingly frail. What's more, he has the long fingers of a painter.
Coming from the land of Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch star's parents are also painters who wanted him to take up the vocation when he was a kid. "No, I didn't paint, but I am as creative as them," he said, breaking into a shy smile.
His fans would readily agree, for while the 27 year old may not conform to the label of a football intellectual, van Persie is already considered one of the most gifted players of his generation.
While his Arsenal teammates were bracing for a crucial encounter against Chelsea on the weekend, a debilitating ankle injury that he picked up late last year allowed him to take time out for a trip to the city of their sponsors: Emirates airline.
As an overcast morning panned out at the sprawling Sevens, the sporting facility of Emirates, it was not only tiny tots of the Arsenal Soccer School who gained from van Persie's company and expert tips.
A man with more than 200 appearances for Arsenal and 40 international caps for the Netherlands, van Persie is what you can call a sponsors' delight. A predator on the field with boyish good looks, but one with no qualms about giving into requests for a seemingly endless number of interview requests from the media apart from, of course, posing for photos, signing team shirts and all the works.
On the one hand, he is politically correct so as not to comment on the John Terry issue ("We do not play in the same club and I don't know what the situation is"), but his sense of commitment to causes that matter to him are strong.
Opening up to Gulf News, he said his immediate priority is to be fit again and help Arsenal towards the closing stages of the league. Van Persie is also painfully aware of his country's "under-achievers" tag in the World Cup and Euro championships.
"The expectations are huge," he said. "We have not done much after making the two finals in '74 and '78. To succeed in the World Cup, it depends on so many things. We have the quality to do so this time, but let's see," said van Persie, for whom this would be the second World Cup finals after 2006.
Branded as the "Brazil of Europe" for the flair that they bring to their game, the Dutch have never been short on legends be it Johan Cryuff, Marco van Basten or, in recent times, Ruud van Nistelrooy.
"The reality is you need some huge success for people to remember you as greats. For example, the trio of Ruud Gullit, van Basten and Frank Rijkaard are like folk heroes in our country because of their triumph in the '88 Euro Championship," van Persie said, betraying a burning desire to leave his mark in the Hall of Fame of his country's football.
Injuries are the worst nightmare of a professional athlete, and van Persie is no different. In his desperation to speed up the recovery of the ruptured ligaments that he suffered in the ankle during an international friendly against Italy, he dashed off to Belgrade for the controversial horse placenta treatment.
Evasive if it had worked well for him, van Persie now seems to be living in that zone of uncertainty as to when he can set foot on the pitch in a competitive game.
"I don't even want to think about the World Cup now," he said, perhaps revealing a fear in his subconscious about not being able to take part in the showpiece.
"It's the first one in Africa and it will be a completely new experience. To predict anything is really hard… take the last Euro, where no one really expected Spain to play so well. There could be some surprises again," he said.
Having joined Arsenal in 2004, he is already one of the young veterans there along with inspirational captain Cesc Fabregas.
Asked if he is looking to emulate one of his all-time heroes, Dennis Bergkamp, in the jersey of the north London club, van Persie said: "Well, it's been six years for me, but his 11 years for one club is very long. I still have three and-a-half years of contract left and then only I will know."
"A footballer's best years are between 20 and 30. We have the players like Fabregas, [Samir] Nasri… we have our own way of playing football and hopefully, should be able to win a few big ones before going out," he added almost wistfully.
A father of two, van Persie said he really enjoyed sharing some of his time with the trainees at the soccer school.
"The idea is to help them live the dream. As a professional footballer, you can help them a little bit… put a hand on their shoulder and listen to their questions. Footballing kids, mind you, are always looking for answers as they grow up."
www.gulfnews.com
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Gulfnews.com added a video from Robin's visit at Dubai online. You can watch the video here.
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Dubai : Robin Van Persie, the Dutch star of Arsenal, refused to put a date on his comeback from a serious ankle injury sustained last November.
"It's been the last two days that I have started jogging, but it's still early to say as to when exactly I can be back on the pitch," he said.
Speaking yesterday during a visit to the Arsenal Soccer School located at The Sevens, the sports facility of Emirates airline, Van Persie did not hide his disappointment in not being able to take part in the Gunners' recent purple patch in the Premiership.
"There is nothing I can do about it. At this point, I can say that my recovery is right on schedule but the injury has been quite bad. I would, however, like to be part of the team's campaign in the later stages of the league or if we are still there in Champions League," said Van Persie, whose soft-spoken demeanour belies the power that he packs behind those bullet shots.
After being written off in the initial months of the campaign, Arsenal have clawed their way back into the Premiership title race with a series of stunning results and face leaders Chelsea in a must-win match today.
Asked if the team's resurgence vindicates coach Arsene Wenger's policy of youth, one of his trusted lieutenants couldn't agree more.
"It's not only about youth, he [Wenger] is a lover of football. He goes around picking up footballers from England as well as abroad who he feels can play the game our way. He believed in us," he observed.
Emirates, sponsors of Arsenal since 2004, flew him into the city on Tuesday as a prelude to a major announcement — the company is starting daily flights from Amsterdam to Dubai from May 1.
Robin Van Persie was in no mood to get involved in the controversy surrounding John Terry, the deposed England captain and Chelsea star. Replying to a Gulf News query, he said: "Its's not my situation, nor do I play in the same team as him."
When asked if he was sympathetic to Terry, being a subject of media intrusions himself in the past, the Dutchman offered: "I agree but I don't know what happened in this case. I would not like to comment on this."
www.gulfnews.com
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