Injury-Prone Dortmund Ace Begins Rehab Programme After Successful Cruciate Knee Surgery

Marco Reus has begun the long road to recovery back from a cruciate knee ligament injury after starting his rehabilitation programme.

The Borussia Dortmund star posted a video on his personal Instagram story (via the tweet below) after Reus was filmed peddling on a stationary bike whilst wearing his protective knee brace.

Reus ruptured his cruciate ligament in Dortmund's DfB Pokal Cup triumph over Eintracht Frankfurt in May, and is not expected to be fully fit until the start of 2018 at the earliest.

The 28-year-old has endured a nightmare time with injuries in recent seasons with a long-term pelvic problem, which prevented him from featuring for Germany at Euro 2016, among seven different issues and strains he has suffered from in the past 18 months.

Reus underwent successful surgery on his knee in early June and, after being granted time away to recover from that operation, reported back to Dortmund's training base on Tuesday to begin work on rebuilding his strength in that area.

Reus was also present for the club's official 2017/18 team photograph on Wednesday, and continued to wear the protective brace around his knee to prevent any possible setbacks so soon into his recovery.

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The attacking midfielder was in fine form for the Westfalenstadion-based team upon his return from his pelvic injury last term as he plundered 13 goals and eight assists in 24 games.

However, he lasted just 45 minutes of Dortmund's 2-1 cup victory over Frankfurt at the Olympiastadion in Berlin after he tore his cruciate knee ligament and will spend much of this season recuperating.

Manager Peter Bosz, who took over from Thomas Tuchel in the close season, will still be able to call upon plenty of attacking options in Reus' absence.

The likes of Christian Pulisic, Mario Gotze, Andre Schurrle, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ousmane Dembele are all fit and available to play when Dortmund kick off their campaign against lowly Rielasingen as they begin the defence of the Dfb Pokal Cup on Saturday.