Even in the absence of the majority of their international players, preparations for Gladbach’s home game against Freiburg on Saturday (15:30 CET) are underway. Ko Itakura has returned from international duty, but took no part in Tuesday’s session due to illness.
Ko Itakura was the first of Borussia’s internationals to come back from his national team. The Japan defender was scheduled to play against North Korea in Pyongyang on Tuesday, but the hosts cancelled the game at short notice. Itakura returned to training with Gladbach on Monday, but illness ruled him out of the week’s second session. “It might be that Ko is back tomorrow, but it could take two or three days,” said head coach Gerardo Seoane. The Foals’ remaining internationals will return to Mönchengladbach in the coming days.
Jordan, meanwhile, is already back in training. Following his leg injury against Heidenheim, the attacker had until recently only been able to complete individual sessions, but he has been re-integrated into team training for this week. Alassane Plea and Tomáš Čvančara have not had the same progress with their respective recoveries, but are nonetheless on the right track. Both forwards were present for the entirety of Tuesday’s session, but their involvement in several of the day’s drills was limited. “Tomáš and Lasso are both pain-free and have recovered from their injuries. It’s just a case of building up match fitness. We’ve got to make sure we don’t put too much load on them so they don’t re-injure themselves,” emphasised Seoane. The same applies to Nathan Ngoumou, who missed last week’s friendly win over KAS Eupen with a knock he picked up against Köln – the Frenchman trained on his own on Tuesday. Simon Walde is still out with a high ankle sprain.
The Foals have three more sessions pencilled in ahead of Saturday’s game – a public session on Wednesday will be followed by two behind closed doors on Thursday and Friday, with all three getting underway at 11:00 CET.
