Saturday, 21 May 2011

Hamit Altintop: "I am very happy. I am lucky"

Hamit Altintop is now in Istanbul, where he landed yesterday from Munich to continue his recovery plan for back problems that has dragged on this final part of the season. The recent signing of Real Madrid wants to accelerate his physical tuning to be ready to face the crucial match between Turkey and Belgium, very important game for the Euro 2012 qualifying.

Hamit Altintop in Turkey jersey
Hamit Altintop (Turkey)

The duel will be played on June 3 at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. The Belgians, second with 10 points, face the Turkish national team, which is third, with 9 points, in a struggle for second place in a group led by Germany. Along with Altintop is expected that Nuri Sahin will be at that meeting. Altintop explained that his premature arrival in Turkey, the country of origin of his parents: "The injury I have is not small and for this reason I have come before the concentration of the Turkish national team, to work and try to recover for the match against Belgium".

On his more immediate future, he did not want to go into details: "Everyone knows that playing at Real Madrid was my biggest target. On holidays I will work hard to get the best possible in the preseason. I will do everything possible to succeed there. But now I want to focus on the game against Belgium". But he dropped a couple of sentences according tohis logical status of a new player of Real Madrid: "I'm very happy, I'm lucky".

Hamit wants to eliminate back pain as soon as possible and so, before leaving for Istanbul in the morning, spoke with the physiotherapists at his former club Bayern Munich. From Turkey he will fly to Belgium, where he hopes to play on June 3, and then is expected to fly to Madrid, to pass physical examination and to be presented.