Chelsea midfielder Marco van Ginkel is on the brink of a playing return with loan club PSV Eindhoven.

Van Ginkel joined PSV over the summer in the final stretch of his recovery from knee surgery. The 28 year-old joined PSV on-loan in October to the end of the season. He's twice won the Eredivisie with PSV.

"He is a good player, both in the game without the ball and in possession," said trainer Roger Schmidt, quoted by Voetbalzone at his weekly press conference.

"A player with an excellent mentality, who is good at passing and is very complete. It is of course not for nothing that Chelsea bought him in the past."

With regard to his return, a lot will depend on the physical reactions that Van Ginkel shows after training and matches.

"In the last two days he took part in the team training again. Hopefully there is no reaction," the coach continued. "Then we can take the next step in team training later this month. We knew from the start that it would be a long time.

"If Marco manages to get through the team training properly, we will see him back on the field soon. Have patience with him. The idea was to have a top player in the final phase of the season."

Van Ginkel has been on the books at Chelsea since 2013, having been snapped up from former Eredivisie partners Vitesse Arnhem. Over these past seven years, he has managed just seven first team appearances with the Blues. However, he has had five stints away on-loan with Stoke City, AC Milan and now three times with PSV.

As he recovered from knee surgery in London over the summer, Chelsea gave Van Ginkel a new one-year contract, which will expire in June next year.

- updated December 21