However, tests have shown the injury to be worse than first feared and Ziege now has no idea how long it will be before he returns to first-team action.
"A routine check-up on my old injury was unfortunately not routine at all, the doctors found that the muscles in the thigh had stuck together," Ziege told the London Evening Standard.
"Part of the muscle was like wood. I have had yet more surgery and the doctor said afterwards that he could not understand how I was able to run and train with the leg at all.
"Of course this is a really big disappointment for me. Six months have been completely lost. The rehabilitation after my surgery in England, all the running I did on holidays, all training sessions, the whole preparation, all in vain.
"Now I must not put pressure on the leg and, yet again, I will only be working with the physios and not with footballs.
"That is what I will have to learn to cope with first. But I don't have any alternatives. I am starting to think in small steps again. The leg is already rather thin and I cannot run."