Foals looking to stay sharp

While several players have left to join up with their national sides, the remaining Foals started into a new week of training. On Thursday, the team will face Fortuna Düsseldorf in a friendly (15:00 CEST).

After the October international break, the Foals will be confronted with a packed schedule. Between 17th October to 8th November, Borussia will play seven competitive matches within the span of three and a half weeks. “During that time, we will playing basically all the time and will have little opportunity to train as a team. It will be a huge challenge for us,” said head coach Marco Rose. In order to stay sharp during the international break, the Foals will play a friendly against second-division side Fortuna Düsseldorf on Thursday (15:00 CEST) at the FohlenPlatz at BORUSSIA-PARK. “It will be important for those players who aren’t on international duty to pick up playing time in order to remain match fit,” said Rose.

Matthias Ginter, Jonas Hofmann, Florian Neuhaus (all Germany), Yann Sommer, Nico Elvedi (both Switzerland), Stefan Lainer, Hannes Wolf (with senior/U21 Austria squad), Ramy Bensebaini (Algeria), Kaan Kurt (Germany U20s) and Famana Quizera (Portugal U20s) are all off on international duty. Additionally, Valentino Lazaro (calf muscle injury), Andreas Poulsen (shoulder operation) and Jordan Beyer (positive Covid-19 test) will all also miss the friendly. After recovering from injury, it remains to be seen whether or not Laszlo Bénes, Denis Zakaria or Breel Embolo will feature on Thursday. “Laci has only just returned to team training, and it could be too soon for Breel and Denis as well,” said Rose.