For the final time before Christmas, head coach Daniel Farke led his team in training in a 90-minute session at the BORUSSIA-PARK training pitches on Thursday afternoon.
At the end of the session, the group, which included World Cup pair Jonas Hofmann (Germany) and Joe Scally (USA), who each returned this week, came together to listen to the head coach, who then sent them off for a shorter-than-usual winter break. “The boys will have four days off. They have earned the chance to enjoy Christmas and relax. We’ve worked really hard in the eleven days of preparation that we’ve had ahead of the second half of the season and we’ve laid some good foundations,” Farke told the media. “We’ll be fresh and will continue our preparations on 27th December.”
More international players return on Tuesday
When the team meet up again next Tuesday, it’s expected that the currently ill Christoph Kramer, Hannes Wolf, Rocco Reitz, Lars Stindl and Torben Müsel will be able to return. “Of course, we were all hoping that everyone would have been fit and healthy for the whole of our preparation, but it’s a five and a half week-long period so if we miss a few players for three or four days due to illness, it’s not the end of the world,” said Farke, who is also yet to welcome internationals Marcus Thuram, Ko Itakura and Nico Elvedi back to training.
The three World Cup participants will return with the rest of the squad on the 27th. “They’ll ndergo full performance tests and are then expected to return to full training with the rest of the team on the Wednesday,” said Farke, who was asked about his personal Christmas plans. “I’ll probably watch some of the Boxing Day football from the sofa on the 26th. First of all, I’ll celebrate with by family, but after the first couple of days I’m hungry for football again.”
