Borussia Dortmund captain Marco Reus is working towards a return to full fitness in May, with the coronavirus outbreak providing him extra recovery time from his hamstring injury.

Reus, 30, missed Dortmund's last seven games in all competitions after suffering a groin injury in the DFB Cup defeat to Werder Bremen last month having originally planned to only miss one month of action and return to team training within "a few weeks".

Now, with extra time to recover made possible by the unfortunate suspension of the Bundesliga due to the coronavirus outbreak, Reus is hoping to be fit and ready for when the league does get back underway.

"Marco is not yet completely symptom-free," Dortmund's player license director Sebastian Kehl told Kicker. "He's now using the time to become symptom-free and therefore continues to train individually."

In the past, Reus' absences with injury have resulted in a drop in performance level from Dortmund. However, this time around Lucien Favre's side suffered defeat only twice in his absence, the last of those the disappointing UEFA Champions League last-16 second leg defeat at Paris Saint-Germain, resulting in BVB's elimination from the competition.

Meanwhile, Dortmund's club captain has shown his commitment to keeping the people of Dortmund healthy in the troubling ties by establishing and contributing a €500,000 donation for the #HelpYourHometown initiative, providing funding and support for small businesses throughout the city of Dortmund.

Jadon Sancho (19, l.), Gio Reyna (17, c.) and Erling Haaland (19, r.) have been bossing things for Borussia Dortmund in Marco Reus's stead. - imago

With Dortmund facing Schalke and Bayern Munich in the space of two weeks when the Bundesliga does make it's return, Reus will be eager to get back on the pitch as soon as possible.

The Dortmund captain knows, perhaps better than anyone, that returning from injury should not be rushed – as he learned when returning too soon from an ankle ligament tear in 2014/15, which saw him cause the same injury before it had fully healed. Especially when the likes of Jadon Sancho, Haaland and Reyna have been keeping BVB's points-tally ticking over.