He already missed the press conference
Bundesliga coach may be out
March 6, 2026 – 11:41 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
The Kraichgauers may have to improvise on the sidelines. Head coach Christian Ilzer is “sickly”.
TSG Hoffenheim may have to make do without head coach Christian Ilzer in the away game against 1. FC Heidenheim. “Chris is sick, has a small infection,” said sports director Andreas Schicker, who held the obligatory matchday press conference on Friday on behalf of the club: “It is still unclear whether Chris can be there. That will be decided during the day or on Saturday morning.”
Even if the coach were to be unavailable on Saturday (from 3:30 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online), Schicker emphasized that he had “great confidence” for the duel with the bottom of the table: “We have a good, large coaching team. If the worst comes to the worst, we would still distribute the tasks. We have had a few preliminary discussions with Chris about this. But to make a final decision, we will wait and see. There is absolutely a chance that Chris will be there on Saturday.”
Schicker emphasized that he would rate the overall playing time so far as “one minus to two plus.” Even though there was only one point from two games recently, it was “a great season. We were aware that there are phases in which things are not that easy. The performances were still okay.” They are still the “surprise team” in third place in the top group.
The sports director has not yet given any insight into the plans for the coming season. Regarding the media-rumored departure of Grischa Prömel to VfB Stuttgart, there is “nothing final to report” as well as the possible signing of attacker Alessandro Vogt from FC St. Gallen, said Schicker.
