"?Borussia Dortmund's Mario Gotze has told reporters that he's close to a return to competitive action for his club side.
Gotze was named in Germany's squad for Bastian Schweinsteiger's farewell match against Finland and their World Cup qualifying clash against Norway, despite not yet figuring in any of Dortmund's early season matches.
And, "?speaking with reporters from the German media, Gotze was happy with his 72 minutes work against Norway, despite not being as sharp as usual.
"Everything went according to plan," Gotze, 24, claimed.
"I am at 99.9 percent, only a goal is missing now."
Despite scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final for Germany against Argentina two years ago, Gotze found his time at Bayern Munich frustrating, regularly finding himself behind the likes of Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Thomas Muller and more recently Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman.
And despite setting up both of Germany's goals in their 2-0 win over Finland on Sunday, Gotze still came in for criticism from former Germany and Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, who singled out the Dortmund man for not doing enough in the false nine position he occupied during the match.
"I have the feeling he does nothing. He's a nice lad, but at one point he has to ask himself whether it's down to him," Lehmann asserted.
After spending the majority of the past few years sitting on Bayern's bench, Gotze will be eager to make up for lost time with Dortmund, and he will be hopeful of being named in Dortmund's squad for their weekend clash against Leipzig.