Van Persie: Sterling not yet ready to play 90mins

Feyenoord manager Robin van Persie has said he has been impressed by Raheem Sterling in training but added he's not ready to play 90 minutes as yet.

Sterling joined the Dutch side on loan until the end of the season after having his contract at Chelsea mutually terminated.

The England international has received his Netherlands work permit, but until he had Feyenoord temporarily shifted training to Belgium to allow him to work with the group.

Van Persie had earlier hailed his move to Feyenoord as a chance for him to "regain the joy of football." The former Manchester City man's last competitive appearance came in May 2025 for Arsenal, and he had been training alone since returning to Chelsea in the summer.

"Raheem trained last Tuesday, for the first time with the group. That was his first time in a group in several months. When you see the choices he makes in small moments, how quickly he thinks and switches, you see that other players also see it and respond to it. That's how it works," Van Persie said.

"You also want to show each other that you're good too. That was evident in those training sessions. In my opinion, he's a player of exceptional quality. He showed that in those training sessions. I enjoyed seeing that, and so did his teammates."

"How match-fit are you after not playing for six months? It depends on how he gets through tomorrow. That looks positive. But we have to be careful with him. We'll talk to Raheem about that. He needs some time to be able to play 90 minutes. That won't be Sunday and it won't be next week either.

"But we'll try to get there as soon as possible. We'll do it our way, as quickly as possible, but responsibly and calmly."

Sterling could make his debut for Feyenoord in their Eredivisie clash against Telstar on Sunday.

Information from ESPN Netherlands contributed to this report.