Both missed over 1,500 days
©IMAGO
The fact that VfL Wolfsburg and Werder Bremen are somewhat unexpectedly deep in the relegation battle is mainly due to weak squad planning and little consistency on the pitch. However, these factors are reinforced by the two clubs’ bad luck with injuries, as a data readout from Transfermarkt showed as of March 27, 2026. No team comes close to the two northern clubs when it comes to missed games and absences.
VfL Wolfsburg is playing the worst Bundesliga season in its history and is threatened with the first relegation in the club’s history. With only 21 points after 27 match days, the Lower Saxony team are in 17th place in the Bundesliga, the gap to FC St. Pauli in the relegation zone is three points, and to 1. FC Köln in 15th place they are even five points behind. In total, the Wolves’ professionals were missing 1,584 days due to injury and therefore 197 games – no team suffered worse. Rogério has been out for the entire season, and Kevin Paredes (21 games), Bence Dárdai (18), Joakim Maehle (18), Jesper Lindstrøm (17) and Jonas Wind (15) were particularly affected.
Only Werder Bremen, who had to accept the next piece of bad news on Thursday, has a similar level of bad luck with injuries. Keke Topp was injured in a training game and will miss the rest of the season with a torn cruciate ligament. Coach Daniel Thioune spoke in detail about the bad luck with injuries before the press conference for the landmark game against Wolfsburg, which Bremen won 1-0. “The sickness rate is so high that I can’t cover it in two minutes. (…) We lost a lot in the defensive block. I don’t know how many central defenders you have to protect a squad with, but against Mainz, Mick Schmetgens was the seventh on the pitch,” he said. In total, the Werder professionals were absent for 1,512 days and 184 games this season – in the entire 2024/25 season there were 845 days absent.
But Thioune’s team, which is seven points ahead of Wolfsburg in 14th place, is not only struggling in defense, where new signing Maximilian Wöber has been missing since the cup game in Bielefeld and Niklas Stark and Amos Pieper are repeatedly injured. The storm center also resembles a single construction site. In addition to Topp, Victor Boniface is currently missing for an indefinite period after a knee operation and Jovan Milosevic with back problems. With 20-year-old Salim Musah, there is only one center forward left in Thioune’s squad.
Third place is occupied by TSG Hoffenheim with 1,107 days absent and 131 missed games. In contrast to Wolfsburg and Werder, this is hardly noticeable on the pitch. After the Kraichgauers fought to stay in the league last season, they are the surprise team this year and can qualify for the Champions League. Those missing the longest are Koki Machida, who has been out since matchday 2 with a torn cruciate ligament, and Adam Hlozek, who first broke his scaphoid and is now suffering from a calf injury. 1. FC Köln (1,090), VfB Stuttgart (1,078) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (1,021) also have over 1,000 days of absence.
FCA & BVB spared injury misfortune
FC Augsburg has the least downtime this season, even if the Fuggerstadt team has to do without two important pillars in the long term. In total, Manuel Baum’s team has 525 absences and 61 missed games. More than half of this can be attributed to the central defender duo Jeffrey Gouweleeuw and Chrislain Matsima. Captain Gouweleeuw missed 21 games with a medial ligament injury but could return shortly. Matsima, who is the most valuable player in the FCA squad with a market value of 22 million euros, has been missing for twelve games with a torn tendon. Behind him is Dimitrios Giannoulis, who had to pass six times.
Borussia Dortmund, who are on course to finish runner-up this season, were largely spared from injuries. Although BVB was hit particularly hard when Emre Can tore his cruciate ligament against FC Bayern, the Dortmund players were only missing 657 days and therefore 79 games this season. With Aarón Anselmino (12 games) and Julien Duranville (9), two of the most injury-prone players left the club in the winter, Niklas Süle (12) will follow in the summer.
