Alexander Nouri would not confirm at Friday’s press conference, whether or not returning players Claudio Pizarro, Max Kruse and Philipp Bargfrede would be granted a place in the starting XI on Sunday. Nouri would not rule anything out as “all three could feature in the match this weekend.” But at the same time, the Werder head coach warned not to expect Pizarro and the other returning players to be back to their best immediately.
“I can’t say whether all of them would be able to play for 90 minutes right now but we will definitely find the best way [to get them back to full fitness],” Nouri said. Apart from Kruse, who did not take part in training on Tuesday due to some stomach pains, the others all completed the entire week’s training sessions.
However Jaroslav Drobny and Lamine Sané definitely will not be in the squad for Sunday. Drobny resumed training with the first team in the middle of the week but a possible appearance at the weekend would still be too soon according to Alexander Nouri. Centre-back Lamine Sané is also not quite ready yet. “Lamine is still following an individual training programme this week, which should prepare him for team training,” explained Nouri. He also went on to say,” we hope that he will be able to join in with us next week.”
