Reduced group trains at the start of the week – with first World Cup returnees expected soon

The Foals got their second week of winter training underway on Monday morning, with five players absent due to illness, and a pair of World Cup nominees about to return to team training.

19 Gladbach players completed a two-hour session at the start of the second week of December training, including various match situations and intensive athletic sessions. The training group was smaller than that of last week’s by five players – with Christoph Kramer, Hannes Wolf, Rocco Reitz, Lars Stindl and Yvandro Borges Sanches absent due to cold symptoms.

Ramy Bensebaini, who missed the “Legends of the Park” friendly on Saturday due to illness, returnedto the pitch, however, as did Stefan Lainer, who had a plate removed from his ankle in surgery last week. Florian Neuhaus completed a full course of team training once more, with only a slight alteration to his individual running programme.

Joe Scally and Jonas Hofmann are about to return to Mönchengladbach. 'If everything goes as planned, Joe will join in this afternoon and be back on the field tomorrow. Jonas Hofmann is expected to return on Tuesday,' explained head coach Daniel Farke. 'They are the only two national players returning to the team this week.'"

Telalovic: “Happy to postpone my holiday”

U23 forward Semir Telalovic trained with the first team once again. “Of course, I had hoped to have taken a little holiday. However, when I got the word that could train with the first team, I was happy to postpone my holiday indefinitely,” the 22-year-old commented, who, on his experiences so far with the side, added: “You learn something new every day, both on and off the pitch. That’s how you keep on developing. It’s absolutely a lot of fun and we why play football.”

The Foals are set to take part in another strength and athletics session on Monday afternoon at the Performance Centre. The following day they will train in the afternoon (15:00 CET), and before the Christmas holidays will complete a double shift on Wednesday (11.15 CET and 15.45 CET) and a single session on Thursday morning (11.15 CET).