Robin van Persie insists he will be fully fit and fresh for the World Cup despite a troublesome knee injury suffered after scoring a hat-trick in Manchester United's win over Olympiakos in March.
The Holland captain suffered the problem in the 89th minute of the Champions League last-16 tie, after his goals overturned a 2-0 deficit to the Greek champions from the opening leg – putting United through to the quarter-finals.
The Dutchman was subsequently out for six weeks, not returning for United until a 66th-minute substitution in the 1-0 defeat to Sunderland on 3 May.
On Thursday Van Persie joined the Dutch squad led by Louis van Gaal at their Hoenderloo training camp and took part in his first two sessions – one in the morning and the second, more intense, behind closed doors in the afternoon.
Despite Van Gaal – who may finally be announced as United's manager on Sunday or Monday – believing that Van Persie is not yet 100% fit, the 30-year-old appeared sharp in the morning session. He trained alongside team-mates, including Aston Villa's Ron Vlaar and Dirk Kuyt, the former Liverpool forward now at Fenerbahce, in the grounds of the Golden Tulip Hotel, where the Dutch team's training camp is based.
Yet later Van Persie wore bandages and strapping on his knee and admitted to not yet being quite match fit. "I'm feeling good," he said.
"Mentally I'm fresh. If you play a full season you can be a little bit tired at the end of the season. But I'm fresh, the knee is fine as well so I'm looking forward to it."
"I'm 100%. It's just that I need a full game now. We have three friendlies to play [and] my last game against Southampton [for United] was 67 minutes so hopefully I can play a bit more."
The trio of warm-up games will allow the striker to shake off any lingering rustiness before next month's World Cup. These start on Saturday with Ecuador at the Amsterdam Arena, before flying to Portugal on Tuesday for warm-weather training.
Holland return home to play Ghana in Rotterdam on 31 May and Wales in Amsterdam four days later.
Van Persie was a relaxed figure in Hoenderloo but did admit to anguish about the knee injury that he suffered so soon after having scoring the hat-trick against Olympiakos.
"Yeah I went from high to a low but that's how football sometimes goes," he said.
The Manchester United star's importance to Holland and Van Gaal for the finals in Brazil was illustrated on Tuesday when the coach admitted discussing a possible switch in formation for the World Cup team with his captain. Van Gaal's default is 4‑3‑3 yet he has consulted Van Persie on potentially playing in a 3‑5‑2 .
"I discussed changing the formation with Robin as I talk about these matters with my captain," Van Gaal said.
"He was here in Holland to recover from his injury and he went to games with me. I spoke to him about the way of playing, my ideas, and we discussed it while we were watching the games."
Van Persie has indeed been a regular watcher of Dutch football with Van Gaal but he would not be drawn on how Holland will line up in Brazil.
Their difficult World Cup group features the holders, Spain, whom Holland will play first in Salvador on 13 June, before moving to Porto Alegre to face Australia five days later, before the final match of the phase, which is in São Paulo against Chile.
Yet asked how Holland may line up for these games, Van Persie said: "It's a difficult question – you will see how we will play."
Regarding the potential change in Holland's shape, he said: "I can't comment on that, maybe later – you will see. In the near future you will see."
