The Foals began preparations for Sunday evening’s game against Arminia Bielefeld on Wednesday, and Matthias Ginter and Manu Koné took part in this session.
Head coach Adi Hütter gave his players three days off: “During the international break you get the chance to go home and switch off a bit, and it’s done us a world of good,” said the coach. The Foals were back training again at BORUSSIA-PARK on Wednesday, and began with an 80-minute session which included first fitness and then technical drills. “The first session was positive. Of course, I would have liked to have had the whole team back, but Germany and Switzerland have fixtures today and those games include five of our squad members. They will return to training on Friday,” added Hütter. “Now we have to make sure we get the most out of training with our slightly smaller group and make tactical preparations for the fixture against Bielefeld.”
Matthias Ginter and Manu Koné were both part of this smaller training group. Ginter had already resumed training with the Foals over the weekend following his Coronavirus illness, and Koné has finally returned to team training following his knee injury that he picked up at the start of pre-season. “Matze Ginter has made a full return, but Manu Koné will be slowly integrated back into team training. He can just about participate in all training activities,” commented Hütter. “Breel Embolo has also made good progress towards recovery.” Connor Noß has returned from his time with the Ireland U21s and participated in today’s training. The extent of Ramy Bensebaini’s injury is yet to be confirmed, after the left-back came off in the 57th minute of Algeria’s 1-1 draw with Burkina Faso in a World Cup qualifier with a groin issue. “We’ll have to wait and see with him when he comes back and an exact diagnosis is made,” said Hütter, whose focus is well and truly on Sunday’s home match against Arminia Bielefeld (19:30 CEST).
“I expect to face a tough Bielefeld side. Their head coach, Frank Kramer, gets them to press high up the pitch and put up a good fight. It will not be an easy game, but we are playing at home and we want to put in a performance like we did against Bayern. Recently we have suffered two tough defeats, and we now have to show a reaction and show from minute one on Sunday that we want to win the game.”
