After 14 months out with injuries, Tomas Rosicky believes he is almost ready to return to the playing pitch.

The Czech international was almost back to full fitness last month but tweaked a groin, causing him to spend more time on the sidelines.

But he now feels he is getting back to his best, both mentally and physically.

"I don't want to jinx it, but I feel that, after more than a year of suffering, my football life is beginning to return to normal," he told his official website.

"If not for my groin injury - which is a common injury for footballers and nothing serious - I would probably have trained with my team-mates, as Mr Wenger said, about two weeks ago.

"The crucial point is that the place where they operated on my hamstring is fine and is coping with training.

"After having missed such an enormous period of time, my body was adapting well to the high workload - but then I felt something, which I now realise was my groin. But I feel pretty much normal again.

"I had been training with the players who had just returned from injury or were new signings - for example, Theo Walcott, Abou Diaby and Andrei Arshavin - but my groin injury should clear up soon, so I should be able to return to full training.

"Depending on how I do, Arsene Wenger will decide when to play me in the reserves. In The Premier League, that is totally normal - a player returning from injury playing a couple of games in the reserves."