His absence had been little noticeable on Wednesday evening, and for once it wasn’t a big issue. Joshua Kimmich was “free tested, his quarantine ends tonight. Then we will do another investigation and see what happened,” said sports director Hasan Salihamidzic in an interview with the broadcaster Dazn before FC Bayern’s 3-0 win against FC Barcelona.
Other Munich players then took on the main roles on the lawn: Thomas Müller scored the 1-0 and filled the almost deserted stadium with his instructions and cheers. Leroy Sané scored the 2-0 and later earned special praise from coach Julian Nagelsmann for his defensive work. Jamal Musiala scored to make it 3-0 and was partly responsible for the fact that Kimmich’s absence from midfield wasn’t so much talked about. Corentin Tolisso, Musiala’s neighbor, had it easy to build up the Munich attacks after a few shaky passes at the beginning against the harmless guests from Barcelona, as is otherwise the task and specialty of the national player, who has been missing for four weeks.
Tolisso, 27, will now have to fill this role at least until Christmas. Because the investigations mentioned by Salihamidzic showed “slight infiltrations” in Kimmich’s lungs, FC Bayern announced on Thursday. Kimmich, 26, is doing “very well,” as he himself said according to the announcement. But he could “not yet train fully”, but had to complete advanced training. He missed the remaining games of the year against Mainz 05, VfB Stuttgart and VfL Wolfsburg.
It is the next chapter in a story that will shape an otherwise successful first half of the season for the team. The win against Barcelona meant the sixth success in the sixth Champions League group game, progress had long been certain. In the league, the lead over Borussia Dortmund since the 3-2 last weekend is four points. But since October the image-Zeitung announced the lack of vaccination Kimmichs, he publicly confirmed the information in the Sky interview and his doubts because of the lack of “long-term studies” were then loudly and clearly contradicted, it is also the pandemic side effects that characterize Bavaria’s season.
It is now said that taking care of the midfielder is a precautionary measure. Doctors speak of “infiltration” when they see typical changes in the lungs on an X-ray. This can be solid or liquid substances that have penetrated the lung tissue or the connective tissue in between. However, infiltration also occurs when the lungs are involved in an infection and inflammation occurs – be it with bronchitis, pneumonia or Sars-CoV-2 infection.
The extent of the infiltrates found in the X-ray does not necessarily reflect the severity of the symptoms. Initially, it means nothing more, but also nothing less than the involvement of the lungs in the disease. The degree of infection as well as the impairment of the lungs is difficult to estimate. With such a finding, however, there is much to suggest that the course of Kimmich’s corona infection could not have been completely asymptomatic, but that he had at least mild symptoms. Doctors at Innsbruck University Clinic had shown last year that the lungs can show significant changes in the X-ray image during and after a corona infection without the person concerned noticing this. Kimmich is doing well, the message said two weeks ago when FC Bayern informed about his infection while he had previously been in quarantine as a contact person.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is also still missing after his corona infection
On the same day that Kimmich tested positive, the same applied to striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, another of the previously unvaccinated Munich professionals. Choupo-Moting, 32, is also still missing from training. “With Choupo, the after-effects of the corona infection are such that we will wait another week until he can hopefully start normal training again,” Nagelsmann said before the game against Barcelona. “He still has a few problems that the training does not yet allow.”
There were several players in the first and second division this year who were absent for longer than the mandatory two-week quarantine after a corona infection. Jonathan Schmid from SC Freiburg last played at the end of August, goalkeeper Rune Jarstein from Hertha BSC was out of training for almost half a year. The comparisons of such cases with those of the Munich professionals are still absurd. Measured purely in terms of his downtime, it is already the longest forced break for Kimmich since he was under contract with FC Bayern.
Almost exactly a year ago he had missed eight games due to a meniscus problem. There are eight games this time too, in which he will be missing due to the stringing together of two quarantines, an infection and the subsequent training. In 2020, Kimmich was injured on November 8th and returned on December 18th. This time he has been absent since November 9th, and a return before the end of the year is apparently out of the question.
Kimmich is quoted in the message as saying that he could “hardly wait to be fully there again in January.” Then, according to the current regulation of the Bavarian Ministry of Health, he would be considered recovered for six months. But for that he has to get well first.