Zakaria back in full team training again

Borussia Mönchengladbach have started a new week of training, building up to the start of the Bundesliga on Saturday when the Foals take on Borussia Dortmund (18:30 CEST). The first session of the week saw Dennis Zakaria join in with full team training again.

Following a morning of fitness and athletics training, head coach Marco Rose had the Foals back out on the pitch at BORUSSIA-PARK after lunch for the week’s first session with the football. In high temperatures, Dennis Zakaria returned to full training and completed the whole session with the rest of the team again. Alassane Plea, who was only partly involved in training over the past few weeks, also took part in the full session. Still unable to train due to injury were Valentino Lazaro (muscular problem), Breel Embolo (ankle), László Bénes (ankle ligament), Andreas Poulsen (shoulder surgery), and Julio Villalba (muscular problem). “A few players have returned to training, others are still out injured. This isn’t an ideal situation at the start of a new season, but we’ll make the best of it,” said Yann Sommer. “We’re obviously looking forward to when the rest of the boys can come back.”

Reflecting on the DFB-Pokal clash against Regionalliga side FC Oberneuland last Saturday, Sommer, who was not involved in the match, said “The cup game has given us a lot of confidence - we’ve started the season very well. In games like that you’re also playing against yourself, so it was important that we were able to win as comfortably as we did. Now we’re really looking forward to getting going in the Bundesliga with such a highly anticipated game. Obviously we want to get off to a good start in the Champions League as well.” The Foals travel to the Signal Iduna Park to take on Borussia Dortmund on Saturday (18:30 CEST) in one of the most anticipated fixtures of matchday 1. “I can’t wait for that - two great teams with a lot of quality, who both like to play good football. There’s a lot of tension and it’s going to be an intense test away in Dortmund. We'll have to give it everything we've got to get off to a good start.”

Until then, there are three more training sessions this week for Sommer and the rest of the team, with Wednesday’s session taking place behind closed doors. The team will start training at 10:00 CEST on Thursday, before the final session on Friday at 15:30 CEST ahead of Saturday’s trip to Dortmund.