Patrik Berger Desperate To Play

Patrik Berger has said he is looking at securing a new deal with Villa despite his career in Claret and Blue to date has been severely limited (just nine first team games) thanks to an awful run of injuries.

He told the official site, ‘There was a point last season when I nearly hung up my boots, especially when I came back from injury and was injured again two weeks later. At my age it’s difficult to keep going. Now it depends on how well I cope with any other injuries. I appreciate every single day that I am able to come in and train though. I have missed so much football that I feel glad just to be able to drive to training and work on the pitch with everyone else. As for my age, it depends on how the player feels and I feel great. I can still run with the younger lads and there is no reason why I shouldn’t work as hard as everyone else.’

‘The manager knows this. And I know that he had older players at Celtic and feels that, as long as the player is looking after himself physically, age doesn’t matter. I’ve had a good talk with the manager and things are good between us. A lot of the team wanted to leave, but they changed their minds when the new manager came in. There have been a lot of changes, but they are all steps forward and everyone wants to be part of an exciting future.’

Berger, whose contract runs out in June 2007 added ‘I am desperate to play, but after the year I’ve had, I’m just glad to be training. As for the first-team, the boys have been playing fantastically, so it’s difficult for me to get into the side. I know my time will come. This is a long season and these are early days yet. As for a new contract, I won’t think about that until the end of the season. I just want to stay fit. My contract is not the most important thing right now. I just want to be able to train every day and play. Hopefully everything else will follow. If I can get another contract I would want to stay.’