Defensive failures
© Imago
The hospital at 1st FC Köln is filling up these days: after the serious ankle injury from winter access Jusuf Gazibegovic (25) Central defender Dominique Heintz will not be available to the second division runnership for the time being. The 31 -year -old regular force suffered a thigh injury in training, the Domstadt residents said. This resulted in an MRI examination on Thursday. However, the FC did not make a precise diagnosis or information about downtime.
Except for the 1-0 win in Ulm on matchday 25, Heintz was always in the starting eleven of Cologne coach Gerhard Struber. “It was my goal to stand in the starting eleven right from the start of the season. When it wasn’t that, I was disappointed. But it is so that coaches sometimes make decisions that don’t fit you. If you continue working well, you will still be rewarded. I believe that it is sometimes in difficult phases,” Heintz reported last.
At Gazibegovic, a crack of syndesmosis had been diagnosed the day before. “That hurts us”, Struber was quoted from the “Geissblog” before the test game against SC Verl (1: 2). “Now it’s time to get creative.” On the right side, the Austrian wanted to test the Joël Schmied (26), which was also fetched in January. Jan Thielmann (22) had played there in the first half of the season, but recently moved back to his traditional position on the offensive.
In addition to Heintz and the Bosnian international Gazibegovic, Struber also lacks Julian Pauli (19; head injury) and Luca Kilian (25), who suffered another cruciate ligament injury in December. Only captain Timo Hüber’s (28), blacksmith, should not remain as an traditional central defender, and should not be used on the right, and in -house, neo Telle (19) in the professional squad.