Philippe Senderos is looking forward to the Club’s forthcoming UEFA Europa League matches after having to spend the majority of last season recovering from injury.
The Swiss international defender capped off the 2010/11 campaign with appearances against Sunderland, Birmingham and Arsenal and is now anticipating an exciting season at the Cottage.
“For me playing in Europe would be a fantastic thing because I had a year out,” he told fulhamfc.com. “It will be a great challenge for me, coming back to European action and hopefully bringing my qualities to the Team. The more games there are, the more opportunities there are for everyone.”
Senderos impressed everyone at the Club with his determination to recover as quickly as possible following his injury – and the defender was eager to praise a number of people for their role in his recovery.
“It’s always hard for anyone who gets injured for a long time, it’s very difficult,” he explained. “The goal for someone who gets injured it not to get too down – for someone who had great success the goal is not to get too high emotionally. I’m really lucky that I’ve got a good family, a good wife who is there to support me. The Club was here to support me and I tried to keep myself busy, that’s the most important thing I could do.
“It’s different for everyone, but for me I needed to be busy and keep working hard, whether it’s in the gym or anything. I try and keep my mind busy as well; I think it’s very important to open yourself up to everything.
“On the physical side, we set up a plan with the medical staff here. I was busy every single day and that’s what I needed to keep going and not just switch off. That showed in my recovery, I came back really sharp and I felt really good.
“The medical staff have been working together and they link together really well from the physios, nutritionists and fitness coaches to the physical coaches outside. It’s a very good group who are well organised.
“From the minute that the injury happened I tried to put myself in recovery mode, that’s what kept me going and made me comeback quicker.”