COLLINGWOOD utility Ben Reid has returned from Germany confident his consultation with a world-renowned sports doctor will help him get over the soft-tissue injuries that have dogged him over the past year.

The Magpies sent Reid to see Dr Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt – the club doctor for German soccer giant Bayern Munich and the sports doctor of choice for sprinter Usain Bult and basketballer Kobe Bryant – after he strained his left calf during a warm-up exercise shortly before Christmas.

Reid had not yet returned to full training when he suffered his injury, which was the latest in a horror run of soft-tissue injuries that had restricted the 2011 All Australian to just four senior games last season.

Reid arrived back in Melbourne on Friday after spending eight days in Munich. He told Collingwood's website that he hoped to return to full training shortly after the Pies' training camp in Queenstown, New Zealand, later this month.

"The main goal was to get over there and get a few different ideas and see some different people that I haven't seen here in Melbourne," Reid said on Friday.

"To get over there and see Dr Wohlfahrt was a really good experience and I have definitely taken a few things away from it.

"He sat me down for two or three hours on my first day and got to know me and went through all of my history with injuries, what sort of soft-tissues I've had.

"He gave me his ideas of why it's happening which we took on board. He says he sees it pretty regularly, the stuff I had, which gave me a bit of confidence as well."

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Reid said Müller-Wohlfahrt had taken an X-ray of his spine and confirmed the Collingwood medical staff's diagnosis that his soft-tissue issues primarily stemmed from his lower back.

"But just to get another outlook from a guy who's dealt with it for a while and his techniques are probably a bit different to what they do over here," Reid said.

"It's something that I'll probably take on board and some of the stuff I think will help me out."

Reid did about four training sessions in Munich's freezing winter conditions and was straight back into training at the Westpac Centre on Friday, completing another running session.

"From here, I suppose we'll just build into it. Every running session I'll do a little bit more," he said.

"My goal will probably be to do a little bit of the Queenstown camp, I think it's about a week-and-a-half, two weeks away now.

"Then after Queenstown hopefully I'll be pretty much into full training."

Reid thinks he will have do ongoing maintenance work on his body to get on top of his problems but is confident he can do so.

"Obviously the last 12 months haven't been great, but the three or years before that I didn't miss much footy at all," he said.

"So the last 12 months have been a bit of a kick in the bum but hopefully I can get on top of that this year and, touch wood, I'll be able to stay injury-free."