Zakaria absent as Foals get back to work

On Wednesday afternoon, Borussia began preparations for Sunday’s match away to VfL Wolfsburg (18:00 CET kick-off). Missing from the squad was Denis Zakaria, who completed an individual session instead.

The Foals travel to Wolfsburg this weekend for matchday 21 of the Bundesliga (Sunday, 18:00 CET). Borussia got their match preparations started on Wednesday afternoon. After some thorough video analysis, Marco Rose led his team in a 90 minute session on the BORUSSIA-PARK training pitch which some of the U23, U19 and U17 players had helped to clear from snow yesterday. “A huge thank you goes to everyone who helped to clear the pitch so that we could train today. It was a great thing to do,” said Rose before moving on to the football itself. “We were all bitterly disappointed after the defeat to Köln, but now it’s time to get back on the horse. Wolfsburg are on an unbelievable run and will be feeling really good. The team defends well and keeps things tight. They play really intense football on the whole and they have heaps of confidence right now. It will be a challenge for us, but one that we are happy to take on. Our preparations will be rigorous.”
 
Denis Zakaria was unable to take part in the first team session of the week, with the midfielder training alone instead. Zakaria was caught on the knee by Florian Neuhaus’ studs and had to be taken off at the start of the second half in the most recent home match against Köln. “It’s nothing major for Denis; he just has some inflammation in his knee which is limiting his movement a little, so we let him train by himself today. It’s highly likely that he will be able to return to team training this week,” said Rose.