Serge Gnabry’s suffering at FC Bayern is not yet over. But on Thursday the national player took the next big step on the way to his comeback.
As the record champions announced, Gnabry trained with the ball on his foot again on Thursday for the first time since the adductor injury he suffered in December. In video recordings from training, the 28-year-old can be seen doing his lonely laps on the pitch and casually kicking a ball in front of him.
But this is not much more than a small step forward in the winger’s recovery process. It will probably be at least another two weeks before Gnabry can return to full team training or play in a competitive game.
FC Bayern without Gnabry against Gladbach and Leverkusen
The record champions will definitely miss the national player in the next two Bundesliga games. The Munich team is up against “feared opponents” Borussia Mönchengladbach and league leaders Bayer Leverkusen. It remains to be seen whether the 28-year-old will be fit in time for the Champions League round of 16 against Lazio (first leg on February 14th).
Gnabry is just one of numerous stars that FC Bayern is missing these days. In addition to the German international, coach Thomas Tuchel currently has to do without Kingsley Coman, Joshua Kimmich and Dayot Upamecano, among others. There are also two other professionals missing, Minjae Kim and Noussair Mazraoui, who are with their national teams at the Asian and African Cups.
In order to make up for the injury misery, the Munich team has already hit the winter transfer market several times. First they signed Eric Dier and Sacha Boey for defense, and on Wednesday they also completed the early transfer of Bryan Zaragoza, who was originally not supposed to join the team until next summer.