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Podolski hoping to make Cologne comeback

Cologne top scorer Lukas Podolski is hoping to return to action on Saturday against Bayer Leverkusen after an ankle injury sidelined him since late January.

Podolski, who has scored 15 league goals this season as his club is fighting to stay up, said he could come on as a substitute after returning to training on Thursday.

"I worked very hard and I am happy to have come back to training. Maybe I am ready for 10 or 15 minutes on Saturday."

"The club has advanced in the past year both on a financial and sporting level," club CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said in a statement.

"These figures show that transfers such as that of Marco Reus (who will join at the end of the season for a reported 17.5 million euros) are no financial risk to the club whatsoever," he said.

"Without Patrick there will not be the same balance between defence and attack," Favre told reporters. "He was one of the best forwards in the first half of the season and was involved in almost every single one of our goals.

"But we can still play good football even without him and we have proven that," said Favre who has steered Gladbach into second place, three points behind Dortmund.