BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Zheng Zhi, captain of Chinese Super League's Guangzhou Evergrande and Asian footballer of 2013, said Thursday that he has not recovered from ankle injury which he sustained at the tail end of last season.
"It's difficult to recover, I'm just doing some rehabilitation exercises and never play in warm-up games," the 37-year-old midfielder said.
Guangzhou Evergrande, two-time champions of AFC Champions League and won seven consecutive titles of Chinese Super League, will kick off its AFC Champions League on next Wednesday against the first rival Tailand's Buriram United FC.
Besides Zheng's injury, Guangzhou Evergrande's goalkeeper Zeng Cheng is also suffering from injury and receiving treatment in the USA now. He probably will miss all the games in February.
Good news for Guangzhou Evergrande is that they have signed Nemanja Gudelj, midfielder of Yugoslaviia's national team, to take the place of Zheng Zhi.
