Captain Clemens Fritz has had to sit out of training over the past two days with neck complaints. “At the moment we assume he’ll be back in training on Friday,” explained head coach Alexander Nouri in Thursday’s press conference – two days before the home encounter with Bayern Munich.
“There are however doubts surrounding his availability at the weekend,” Nouri continued. “We’ll know tomorrow whether or not he’ll be at my disposal.” To Nouri’s right at the press conference was Claudio Pizarro, who himself didn’t train with the rest of the team in the morning. In contrast to Fritz though, the Peruvian has given the all clear regarding his inclusion against Bayern: “I completed a few movement and agility exercises this morning, everything is fine.”
Aron Jóhannsson (calf problems), Florian Grillitsch (shoulder dislocation) and Philipp Bargfrede (Achilles tendon problems) definitely won’t feature on Saturday. All three trained individually during the week and the upcoming game against the record champions has arrived too soon for them. “They need a little more time, their return dates haven’t been set yet,” explained Nouri.
