(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-24 14:13

FUZHOU - After a long-term lay-up due to injury, Chinese woman volleyball player Zhao Ruirui will play her very first match almost in four years here in Fuzhou, capital of South China's Fujian province on Sunday.

China's spiker Zhao Ruirui runs during a training session before the China-Cuba volleyball challenge game in Fuzhou February 23, 2008. [Xinhua]

Head coach Chen Zhonghe, who released Zhao's comeback announcement and called up her to the annual winter training camp last December, said Zhao's return will be in time for China's final preparation for the Beijing Olympics, scheduled to open on August 8, when the team looks to defend its title.

"Zhao's physical strength has been recovering smoothly and her training in the camp is satisfactory. She is able to play to 90 percent of her best, we will see her form back on track as the Beijing Games is just around the corner," Chen said on Saturday after a training session ahead of the friendly series against Cuba.

"But of course, she is still on the way to her top form and she needs time to inspire the chemistry with her teammates."

Zhao, still practising with the bandage around her knee, pulled off an agile and skilled work in the training session, but declined to comment on her comeback form and the Olympic future.

Zhao, with a height of 197 centimeters, was a key player in Chen Zhonghe's Athens Games squad.  However, the baby-faced girl was injured in the leg prior to the 2004 Olympic Games.

Her injury became even worse in her first Olympic match against the United States, and Zhao was then sidelined from the rest of the matches in Athens, where the Chinese women's volleyball team re-claimed the Olympic title after a 20-year wait.

"Although Zhao did not play for a long time, I won't keep her on the bench as I want to test her and give more motivations to her by sending her onto the court in the first match of the series," Chen added.

After leading the team to its first Olympic title in Athens after 20 years, the ever-smiling coach's team suffered some major injuries, taking some of the shine off the feat by slump that has followed.

Team captain and starting setter Feng Kun, who was injured last year, will also made comeback appearance in the series, Chen confirmed.

The series' first three legs will take place in Fujian's Fuzhou, Jinjiang and Xiamen separately and after two days' break, the rivalry will be rekindled in Zhejiang's Jiande, followed by the last two matches in Shaoxing and Hangzhou.

The friendly series will be seen as partial gauges to pick members for the Olympic squad. Injuries-battered Zhao and Feng will have to compete with youngsters including Wei Qiuyue, Xu Yunli and Xue Ming before registering their names on the final roster.