FC Bayern Munich – Why Leon Goretzka’s situation is so complicated: “Intolerable condition”

Leon Goretzka has set ambitious goals for the new year. “Staying healthy and achieving maximum sporting success” were the resolutions he made to Bayern magazine “51” for 2022. Based on Arthur Schopenhauer’s aphormism: “Health is not everything, but without health everything is nothing”.

At the moment, Goretzka’s condition is not in particularly good shape. Unlike many of his teammates, the midfielder is not confronted with a corona infection, but has been suffering from a stubborn and puzzling knee injury for some time.

His last competitive game for the German record champions was on December 4th (3-2 against Borussia Dortmund), so it was more than a month ago. In the run-up to the duel with BVB, Goretzka had to struggle with problems with the patellar tendon and even broke off team training. For the top game, however, he bit his teeth.

Obviously with grave consequences. Since then, Goretzka has only completed individual units, he missed the start of the second half against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the second Bundesliga game of the year at 1. FC Köln will take place without him.

Nagelsmann on Goretzka: “A difficult subject”

“He has not trained for eight weeks. It is impossible that he will return against Cologne,” said Julian Nagelsmann last Thursday. But it did not stop at this announcement, the FCB coach went into detail with a view to the long abstinence of his top performers.

It was “a difficult topic”, the 34-year-old quarreled. “He had two days that were quite decent and now he had a day where we reduced the load. Today we wanted to increase it again, then it got significantly worse again,” explained Nagelsmann. He added: “It is important that things do not go on like this. Because the situation is unbearable, especially for him.”

In order to improve the intolerable condition and since the MRT images made did not provide any information, the recognized knee expert Dr. Christian Fink from Innsbruck tried hard.

Goretzka: Bavaria calls in knee specialists

Fink’s practice is heavily frequented by the Bayern professionals, in the past the specialist has already taken care of Leroy Sané, Niklas Süle and Corentin Tolisso.

“We sent the pictures to the specialists in Innsbruck,” revealed Nagelsmann and added: “We’ll do another examination and then decide what to do with the knee: whether to try conservatively or have another look in order to get to know the third dimension, whether there is a structure that causes problems. “

Means: an operation is not excluded. Nagelsmann, who recently had to forego 13 players against the foals due to Corona, Africa Cup stints and injuries, is urging clarification. “We have to make sure that he doesn’t miss another four or five weeks,” said the FCB coach.

According to a report in the “Bild” newspaper on Tuesday, however, the Munich residents are now tending towards a more conservative treatment, which would mean an earlier return to the field.

FC Bayern faced challenging weeks

In the coming weeks, the schedule will be more tightly meshed, at the beginning of February the duel with RB Leipzig is in the house, one and a half weeks later the round of 16 of the Champions League against Red Bull Salzburg. To what extent the knee of the German national player can be strained again by then is currently open.

The main focus is on ensuring that the 26-year-old recovers fully and that any chronic damage is avoided. Only then, when his health is secured, can Goretzka take care of his second annual resolution, the maximum sporting success.