Rodgers: Bodde Will Be Like A £4m New Signing

Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers says having Ferrie Bodde back available will be like a new £4 or £5m new signing.

The Swans boss has been impressed with his progress as he attempts to recover from a knee ligament injury for the third time, after beginning the nightmare of problems back in 2008.

Bodde has been back in training and also played in a practise match, Brendan Rodgers said he was impressed wit the Dutch midfielder:

"Whatever league we are in next year, having Ferrie will be like signing a £4 million or £5 million player as long as he is football fit, which hopefully he will be,"

"Having him back will be massive for us.

"I`m really excited about working with Ferrie because he is a big talent.

"On his first day back in training he was absolutely outstanding.

"Then we played a practice game the next day and it was just fantastic to see someone with that quality and confidence in his physical condition."

Rodgers now hopes he can get back up to the level of fitness and ability he was before the injuries:

"Ferrie is delighted with how his rehabilitation has gone and he now sees why I wanted to bring him over here so we could assess him.

"It will be interesting to see what level Ferrie can get back to

"But we have seen players in the past getting back to their best and our aim for now is to get Ferrie fit again.

"It must have been so frustrating for him in the past couple of seasons.

"He was the top midfielder in the Championship by an absolute mile before he got injured — every man and his dog was after him at that time.

"What`s happened has obviously been very difficult for him.

"It`s been a long road back, but he`s in a great place now where people are working hard for him and trying to get him back to his best level.

"He`s slimmed down and, most importantly, he looks happy."

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.