In the promotion season, he was one of the great heroes at FC Schalke 04 and became one of the royal blue crowd favorites with his goals. In the current season, however, Rodrigo Zalazar is lagging far behind the great expectations placed on him, as he has been injured for months. What’s next for the midfield star, with whom S04 still want to stay in the league?
Zalazar has only started four times in the current Bundesliga season in Gelsenkirchen. The Uruguayan has not been on the pitch for a minute since early October after suffering a complicated metatarsal fracture.
When will the creative player, who scored six goals for the Knappen in the promotion year 2021/2022, finally return? Schalke’s new head coach Thomas Reis only shrugged his shoulders in an interview with the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung”.
“If only I knew,” the S04 coach couldn’t give a precise answer himself. “It always depends on how the healing process is and how the foot behaves when it kicks the ball again for the first time. I’m not a doctor,” said Thomas Reis, under whom Zalazar has not yet had a single training session .
Eintracht Frankfurt has a buyback option for Zalazar
However, Schalke’s trainer made it clear that the midfielder “will definitely not be available in the first games of 2023”. The hopes of many S04 fans for a timely comeback in January have been dashed.
It is also still unclear how things will continue with Zalazar after the end of the season. The Gelsenkircheners have now tied their promotion hero to the club until 2026. However, a buyback clause of four million euros was contractually agreed with Eintracht Frankfurt.
According to the current state of knowledge, it is still completely open whether Eintracht will take this option.