Giggs Confirms Major Injury Boost Ahead Of Sunderland Clash

Interim Manchester United manager Ryan Giggs has confirmed striker Robin van Persie is back in training and could feature against Sunderland this weekend.

Van Persie has been on the sidelines since picking up a knee injury during the closing stages of United’s 3-0 win over Olympiakos last month and the injury was expected to keep him out for the remainder of the season.

However, after going back to Holland to work with the Dutch national team fitness coach, RVP has now made significant improvement in recent weeks and appears to be closing in on a comeback.

Giggs confirmed the 30-year-old returned to first team training with United on Friday and will continue to work on his fitness this week. If all goes to plan and he shows no ill-effects then the striker should be in contention to face Sunderland at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.

When asked for an update on van Persie’s situation, Giggs is quoted by the Mirror as saying:

“Yeah we’ll just have to wait and see how he goes this week.

“He came back last Friday and he trained well.

“He just needs to work on his fitness now, so yeah he looked great.”

Having van Persie available again will come as a welcome boost to Giggs as he looks to end the season on a high and build on his impressive start as United boss that saw his guide the club to a 4-0 win over Norwich last weekend.

The Dutchman enjoyed an excellent debut season at Old Trafford following his move from Arsenal in the summer of 2012, scoring 30 goals in 48 games to help lead United to the Premier League title last season.

However, things haven’t gone quite so well this term, with a series of injuries restricting him to just 25 appearances in all competitions, so he’ll be hoping to end the season on a positive note and get his fitness back up to speed ahead of this summers World Cup.