THURAM BACK IN TEAM TRAINING

In the absence of ten international players, Marcus Thuram took part in team training on Tuesday after a long injury lay-off.

At the start of a new week of training, head coach Marco Rose had to work with a much smaller group than he is used to. Ten Borussia players are currently on international duty: Yann Sommer, Nico Elvedi, Michael Lang, Breel Embolo (all Switzerland), Matthias Ginter, Florian Neuhaus (both Germany), Stefan Lainer (Austria), Hannes Wolf (Austria U21s), Jan Olschowsky and Kaan Kurt (both Germany U20s) have all travelled to represent their countries. Missing through injury are Valentino Lazaro (muscle issue), Lázsló Bénes (ankle ligament issue) and Andreas Poulsen (shoulder operation).

After Denis Zakaria’s return to training following a knee operation, Marcus Thuram also joined in with the team for the first time since an operation on his ankle. “Both players are feeling good, but unfortunately they still aren’t fully ready yet,” said Marco Rose. “The first competitive match is getting ever closer and we are working for them to be as fit as possible in that time,” he continued. Alassane Plea (muscle injury) and Julio Villalba (muscle issue) also completed rehab sessions and are making steps towards a recovery. “Lasso is pretty far along. He can do almost all movements relatively painlessly and has already started sprinting again. But we need to remain patient with him.”

Borussia will train twice on Wednesday: there will be a fitness session in the morning, before work on the pitch gets underway at 15:00 CEST. An hour-long session is planned for Thursday at 16:00 CEST. The final match before Gladbach’s return to competitive action in the DFB-Pokal will take place on Friday evening (19:00 CEST) against Eredivisie team VVV Venlo. On Saturday, the Foals will train at 10:00 CEST before a day off on Sunday.