Defense chief of 1. FC Cologne
©IMAGO
As feared, 1. FC Köln will have to be without defensive chief Timo Hübers for a long time. The 29-year-old, who had to be transported off the field on a stretcher in the 82nd minute of the Bundesliga game in Dortmund (0-1), suffered a serious knee injury. This was revealed by an MRI scan on Sunday morning. Hübers will undergo surgery on Monday. Details about the diagnosis and downtime were not disclosed in the announcement from the cathedral townspeople.
Sports director Thomas Kessler said: “It was clear from the situation itself that it didn’t mean anything good for Timo. The diagnosis hits us all hard, especially him. At a young age, he fought his way back onto the pitch twice after serious injuries – and we are sure that he will go his way this time too. Timo has great inner strength and a remarkable mentality that will get him through these phases. We as The FC family are close to him, supporting him every step of the way and wishing him a lot of strength and a speedy recovery.”
FC, who lost on Saturday, had a wasted evening at BVB and only conceded the decisive 0-1 result in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Added to this is the serious injury suffered by Hübers, who had already torn a cruciate ligament in 2016 and 2018.
The defender is “bad, you have to be honest,” coach Lukas Kwasniok revealed to “Sky” after the final whistle and already suspected something bad: “I was with him for a short time. He’s still upset, crying because he’s in a lot of pain. He knows that the knee probably doesn’t look good. But we don’t have a final diagnosis yet. It just looks like a really serious knee injury.” Kwasniok therefore immediately assumed that there would be a month-long outage.
