Marco Reus has returned as a real leader for Borussia Dortmund after his six-month injury layoff, coach Thomas Tuchel has said following the Germany international's comeback with three goals and six assists in only four games.
Reus, 27, put Dortmund on top of Champions League Group F with his 88th minute goal against Real Madrid on Wednesday.
It was his third goal in only 230 minutes on the pitch, in which he added a further six assists, meaning he has had a hand in a Dortmund goal in every 25.32 minutes since returning from injury.
"He's remarkable, staggering," Tuchel said during the prematch news conference ahead of the trip to Cologne on Saturday. "I was worried about him when I talked to him after he was ruled out of the 2016 Euros, and I was worried about him when we met after the summer break, and we learned about the extent of his injury.
"But we saw how professional he was about it, and how convinced, patient and target-orientated he worked on his full recovery. He was always confident he could reach this level again. We saw that also in the six weeks he trained with us before he returned. It was an impressive return."
During the summer transfer window, Dortmund lost several key players in Ilkay Gundogan, Mats Hummels and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Tuchel believes that Reus has emerged as their new leader.
"He's incredibly important for the team," Tuchel said. "Through what he had to go through he became the personality he is now. The room he fills with his presence is a very big room. He fills a vacuum that was there previously. He deserves every compliment."
Tuchel added that the young players arriving at the club this summer all look up to him.
"Without a lot of words," he said. "Setbacks and injuries are part of Marco. He has changed again. His self-perception, his confidence. Everything has reached a new level. We see that in the games. And we can't replace it with anything."
At the Bernabeu on Wednesday, Reus converted a cross from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with whom he also clicks on the pitch, and Tuchel said: "You always prefer to kick the ball around with your mates than without your mates."
Meanwhile, Dortmund will have to do without Mario Gotze when they face Cologne. The forward is still struggling with knee problems and is only set to return to team training next week.