He made his season debut for Manchester United on Sunday against Aston Villa. The national team captain was substituted in during the second half of the goalless Premier League match.
It was his first minutes in the league in over five months. A long wait was over after a period where injuries came one after another.
Very frustrating. I've never been as injured as I was last season. It started already in December last year, I came back, played a few matches and then I pulled my hamstring and was out almost the entire season.
It wasn't over there. My body needed an overhaul before this season.
Injured
I had problems with my toe for a very long time and needed to fix it. It wasn't broken, more of a nerve thing. The injury has been building up for a while and I've been playing on painkillers. It wasn't an operation, more of an intervention, he says at the press conference in Bratislava.
There, at the National Stadium, Slovakia is waiting in a key match in the Nations League. And already on Monday, Estonia in Tallinn. But whether Nilsson Lindelöf plays and how much he can play remains to be seen.
My body feels good, if it holds up for two matches or not is hard to say. I've been in the situation before when I haven't played that much and have still come back quickly and been able to perform for 90 minutes. In that sense, I feel that my body holds up. But it's not me who decides who plays.
Poker Face
He who does it, national team coach Jon Dahl Tomasson, doesn't want to reveal whether the captain will start. Nor anything about which players he's counting on against Slovakia.
Around the team, I show my poker face. There's no reason to give anything away to Slovakia. We have new players and some injuries. I think it can be difficult for our opponents to figure out how we play, says Tomasson.
And continues:
We know their quality. We want to win, but a draw is okay. It will be a big test for us. They have built for a long time, we have just started.
2024 has been a golden year for Slovakia, a year for the history books. We all remember how they played in the European Championship, they beat Belgium, impressed and almost knocked out England. Hopefully, we can ruin their party.
