Champions League
Bayern’s de Ligt on hold: “Pain still big”
FC Bayern Munich is missing: defender Matthijs de Ligt. photo
© Tom Weller/dpa
There is still a shortage of personnel in the defense center at FC Bayern. Matthijs de Ligt is also missing in Copenhagen and will probably only return after the international break.
The bottleneck of the FC Bayern Munich’s central defender position will probably last at least until the international break.
After the Champions League game at FC Copenhagen in the evening, Dutch national soccer player Matthijs de Ligt will most likely miss this Sunday’s Bundesliga home game against SC Freiburg due to a painful bruise on his knee. The clubs then have a two-week break because of the next international matches.
Bayern’s sports director Christoph Freund reported during the premier class trip to Denmark that “the pain is still pretty bad” for de Ligt. “He can’t bend his knee that well yet. We hope he’ll be able to walk again soon, but it might take a while,” said Freund. De Ligt suffered a blow to the knee in Bayern’s 7-0 win against VfL Bochum a week and a half ago. He has been out since then.
Only two trained central defenders left
Coach Thomas Tuchel currently only has two trained central defenders available: Dayot Upamecano and Minjae Kim. Bayern are also considering signing former international player Jérôme Boateng, who is without a club. The 35-year-old played for the record champions until 2021 and won the treble twice with the Munich team. Boateng has been training at FC Bayern since Sunday. A decision about re-appointing Boateng will be made this week, as Freund announced.