Interview with Sebastian Rudy

Sebastian, you had to cut short your time with the Germany U21s this week due to an adductor complaint. How are your chances for featuring against Stuttgart at the weekend?

I can't really say right now. I haven't actually been able to train with the team since I aggravated my adductor, but I'll be trying everything to get myself fit enough to play.

How much of a blow would it be for you if you couldn't play against your old club?

I don't really want to think about that actually. I'll know in the next day or so if I can play or not. In 2008 I made my debut for Stuttgart against Hoffenheim, and these games are always something special. But for me there isn't as much hype about this game as there was for my first game against Stuttgart after I transferred here.

Do remember much of your debut?

Of course. It was in September 2008 in Mannheim. We were lucky that day because we had Jens Lehmann in goal and he was outstanding. We got a good 0-0 draw.

One year later you decided to move to rivals Hoffenheim, correct?

For me there was just a better perspective here in Hoffenheim. I didn't feel like I trusted the manager at VfB anymore, and for a young player that's extremely important. So it was a logical step for me to make the move to Hoffenheim.

Did you expect to settle in here so quickly at Hoffenheim and for the Germany U21s, as well as get an invitation from Jogi Löw to join the senior Germany squad?

No definitely not. My aim when I came here was just to get more playing time to develop myself. I managed to do that, and the rest just happened rather unexpectedly. But I'm still not the finished article; there are a lot of areas where I can still improve.

How do you rate the team's performances this season?

We've shown in patches this season that we have a lot of potential, but we need to be able sustain our form over a longer period of time. We're still not quite where we want to be. Performances like the one against Köln a few weeks ago can't happen very often, if we want to be successful.

On Saturday 1899 have the chance to move into third place in the table.

Yes, that has to be our goal. But it will be a tight game; derbies always are. If we can put them under enough pressure and get off to a good start in the game, I think we can get a first win against them.

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