For the past several months soccer fans have been obsessed with one question: will Didier Drogba return to the Montreal Impact?

The star player made a monumental difference to the team when he joined last year, but over the winter rumours flew that Drogba was going to return to his former club, Chelsea, as a coach.

On Monday the Impact players began their pre-season training session at the Olympic Stadium, and Drogba was not around.

But club president Joey Saputo said that Drogba should join his teammates, but he did not know when.

"I expect for him to come back. He's a professional, and I expect for him to come back with the right intention, but at the end of the day we'll see when he does come back," said Saputo.

Saputo said he has spoken with Drogba recently about what the player will do when he can no longer play professional sports.

"He spoke to me about the possibility that he wanted to think about his post-soccer career and go into coaching and whatnot, but he had committed to a contract and he was aware he had committed to a contract, and he just needed some time," said Saputo.

"I'm happy that he has decided to honour the contract he has and come back to Montreal."

On Sunday Drogba said he was heading to somewhere far warmer than Montreal for pre-season training: Qatar.

Saputo said he was not worried about that.

"He's a player that 's played at the highest level. He's 38 years old. He knows how he needs to train in order to be in the best condition possible.

It's obvious that he feels that he's a couple weeks behind because of the situation, so he wasn't ready to come in and train with the ball so to speak," said Saputo. 

Head coach Mauro Biello said he is in conversation with the superstar.

“I spoke with Didier this morning. Obviously it wasn't an easy situation for him but in the end it’s resolved and we're happy he's coming back to help this team have success,” he said. “He’s a competitor. He’s been conditioned to win and perform at the highest levels.”

Captain Patrice Bernier said there’s no secret that Drogba has a major impact on that team.

“I think people around the league view us a lot higher for what he can bring on the field and off, so just happy this saga is put to rest. And we’re moving forward and I know him and he's an ultimate professional and he wants first and foremost to perform at the level that he showed us last season,” he said.