SV Werder Bremen's pre-season is quickly gathering pace! The Green-Whites are scheduled to fly to Munich at 13:05 CEST, before traveling to their summer training camp by bus. 24 players are set to make the journey to Zillertal, where they'll stay for a week, until July 14th.
As may have been expected, Izet Hajrovic will not be travelling to Zillertal with the rest of the squad. After tearing his ACL, the Bosnia international still hasn’t returned to full team training so will continue his rehabilitation in Bremen. Milos Veljkovic, whose summer break began later than most due to the U21 European Championship, will travel from his holidays directly to Zillertal. Finally, Fin Bartels, whose wife will soon have a baby, will join up with the group later.
Seven international Green-Whites will, however, travel with the team to the training camp. New signings Jiri Pavlenka and Ludwig Augustinsson, as well as the more familiar faces of Theodor Gebre Selassie, Niklas Moisander, Thomas Delaney, Florian Kainz and captain Zlatko Junuzovic, are all ready to get back training after being allowed an extended holiday due to their involvement with their national teams. On Wednesday, they underwent individual performance tests at the Weserstadion.
Youngesters Jesper Verlaat and Luca Plogmann are both being given a chance to travel with the senior team, and both will experience Zillertal for the first time. Verlaat was an important figure at the back for the U23s this season, contesting 35 competitive games. Meanwhile, Plogmann impressed with his performances for the U17s. The goalkeeper, who was born in Bremen, kept twelve clean sheets last season, and will complete the goalkeeping quartet along with Jiri Pavlenka, Michael Zetterer and Jaroslav Drobny. Werder’s newest addition Yuning Zhang, was only presented as an SVW player on Wednesday, but he will also travel with his new teammates to the camp.
The 24-man squad:
Jiri Pavlenka, Michael Zetterer, Jaroslav Drobny, Luca Plogmann – Luca Caldirola, Robert Bauer, Ludwig Augustinsson, Thomas Delaney, Florian Kainz, Jerome Gondorf, Aron Jóhannsson, Max Kruse, Zlatko Junuzovic, Niklas Moisander, Yuning Zhang, Ulisses Garcia, Theodor Gebre Selassie, Johannes Eggestein, Lamine Sané, Jesper Verlaat, Niklas Schmidt, Maximilian Eggestein, Philipp Bargfrede and Ousman Manneh.
