BONN Germany libero Matthias Sammer, who has been sidelined by a career-threatening knee injury for 15 months, says he will play again but probably not this season. I am certain that I will make it and that I will play in the Bundesliga again, Sammer, 31, told German daily Bild in an interview released on Saturday. I don't feel pain anymore and it's getting better every day, said the Borussia Dortmund defender, adding that he would probably not be back until next season.

Sammer has not played since undergoing the latest of a series of operations on his troublesome left knee in October 1997. A prominent member of Germany's Euro 96-winning team and of the Dortmund side which lifted the European Cup in 1997, Sammer has won 23 caps for East Germany and 51 for Germany. If the knee's strong enough, I could keep playing for a long time, he said.

(Reuter)