Bild: Mario Götze to start pre-season training with Dortmund on Friday

The past couple years have been rough for Mario Götze. He transferred from Bayern Munich back to Borussia Dortmund before last season, partially in an attempt to rectify his lack of playing time and downturn in form.

Instead, Götze continued to struggle at Dortmund last season. And then he was prematurely sidelined for the rest of the season because of myopathy, a metabolic illness that causes weight gain and fatigue.

There were questions whether the 2014 World Cup winner would ever play again, but Götze is determined to return to Dortmund’s team. According to Bild, he begins his work to do so as soon as Friday, when he will reportedly join-up with the club for pre-season training.

Dortmund’s players are scheduled to start returning today for pre-season, but with many of the senior players still on vacation they’ll probably be filtering back for the next two weeks.

Next week BVB will head to Austria for a training camp, and then they’ll head to China for a tour on July 21st. The first friendly for Peter Bosz’s side this summer is scheduled to be against 1860 Munich on July 16th. It seems unlikely that Götze will be ready to feature heavily in that match, but if this report is to be believed then it’s possible that he’s closer to a return than we know.

Either way, the club and fans need to have patience with Götze this season. He hasn’t always received that patience from the fans, but he needs it now more than ever if he is going to be successful coming back from such a serious disease.