Dortmund go into winter training

Dortmund - Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday started winter break training for the second half of the Bundesliga season where they aim to get out of the relegation zone.

The 2011 and 2012 champions Dortmund are second bottom after a dismal first half of the campaign which saw them lose 10 of 17 games.

But coach Jurgen Klopp was upbeat Tuesday to achieve the turnaround from January 31, a difficult game at third-placed Bayer Leverkusen, onwards.

"My batteries are recharged. I am full of anticipation," Klopp said.

"I wasn't relieved about our situation but about the fact that we could leave it behind during the (Christmas) break.

"We have a huge programme ahead of us and want to tackle the games with joy and anticipation."

Mats Hummels, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Ilkay Guendogan, Nuri Sahin, Marco Reus, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Sokratis are to regain full fitness in the return from injuries during the training which also includes a camp in Spain from Saturday onwards.

The squad also features newly-signed Kevin Kampl, but Gabon's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Shinji Kagawa of Japan and Australian Mitchell Langerak are missing because of Africa Cup of Nations and Asian Cup duties.

"We deserve to be down there (in the standings) and now have 17 games to fight our way up," the captain Hummels said.