On Saturday, Manchester United won 5-3 in a crazy game. How do you think your team-mates did in a match you watched on TV at home?

We went down to a very strong Manchester team. They put the pressure on right from the start and as far as the balance of play went there's not much you can say. Manchester deserved the win even though I think that maybe the opportunity was there for us to scrape a draw.

Each time you got back into the match, Manchester opened up the gap again a few minutes later.

That's right but when you play away, against Manchester United to boot, you know what to expect. There's some tremendous players and if you let your concentration slip, you pay for it, just like in the Champions League. If we'd shown the same fight as Manchester, the match would have had a different outcome. We can certainly have regrets but as the match is over it does no good to let it get on top of us. We must tell ourselves that next time we'll show a greater will to win and so will be able to hope for a better result.

How are things going for yourself?

Things went well last week and this morning I began training with the squad again. Now I have to wait until tomorrow to see if Bobby Robson is going to put me in the team or not. For my part, I feel ready to play against Inter Milan on Wednesday.

But you're back two weeks before expected?

Right enough. I've done as much as I can to get back as quick as possible and today I feel ready to go. What's more, I've arranged with my doctors for them to send me a protective mask so there's nothing more to worry about. Bye until Thursday.

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