Injured Dutchman Bouma will test fitness in Aston Villa reserve game

Mar 9 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

WILFRED Bouma should take another giant step on his recovery from a serious ankle injury when he turns out for the reserves against Portsmouth tomorrow.

The Dutch international played 90 minutes against Chelsea reserves last Monday and, having travelled on Villa’s sunshine break to Dubai, he is looking to push his fitness along to play a part in the remaining 10 games of the season.

“I’ve had to be very patient, it was a nasty injury,” said Bouma. “There is still some discomfort but it hasn’t kept me from training.

“I’m glad I am back involved again and hopefully first-team football as well.

“We shall see what happens. I have started to train more intensively and that’s why I managed to play 90 minutes last week.”

Bouma returned to the ‘Great Outdoors’ at Bodymoor Heath on January 17 and has kept up to date with many of Villa’s games on Dutch television.

He actually made the trip to see the home game against Stoke – but missed the late drama.

“Five minutes before the end I was thinking about beating the traffic because I was thinking that we were in control,” he said. “Then when I got home I got a text to say we had drawn and thought it was a joke.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t. I was already thinking of the table – that we were one point behind Chelsea and Liverpool. But we are still in a great position.

“We are still fourth. Unfortunately there was a possibility of going eight points clear of Arsenal – now we are three clear.”