At 14.47 on Saturday Bernd Schneider joined his team-mates at the BayArena training ground for the first time after his long injury lay-off. Over 70 Bayer 04 fans cheered on the midfielder as he made his way from the changing room to the training pitch.

No pain for Schneider

Schneider had no problem in completing the warm-up routine involving running and ball work but did extra circuits of the pitch instead of playing in the practice match at the end of the training session. “We’ve got to find the right balance in terms of intensity. There’s no point in trying to do everything at once but it was great being able to work with the rest of the lads again,” declared Bernd Schneider who underwent an operation on a slipped disc in his neck at the end of April.

However, the fans who attended the training session did not get a chance to see the other long-term absentee. Lukas Sinkiewicz has recovered from his cruciate ligament injury but had to miss training due to a bout of sinusitis.

Sinkiewicz and Gekas to travel to Turkey

Theofanis Gekas also had to miss out. The Greek striker had a knee operation in Athens in December, and soon had to undergo further treatment to deal with resultant water retention on the knee. But Sinkiewicz and Gekas will both join the training camp in Belek in Turkey.

Both Brazilians Henrique and Renato Augusto were also absent on Saturday, but are due to train on Monday, as was the long-term injury Vratislav Gresko.

Preparations for indoor tournaments

The first training session of 2009 focussed on two areas. Firstly, coach Bruno Labbadia wanted to get his players used to the ball again after a three week break and, on the other hand, prepare for the indoor tournaments in Dortmund on Sunday and Cologne on Monday. This involved marking out the exact dimensions of the playing area in Dortmund.

“If you take something on, then it’s worth treating it seriously and as far as I am concerned indoor tournaments are primarily there for the fans. And obviously, we want to play to win,” explains Bruno Labbadia.

Line-up for the indoor tournament in Dortmund:

Benedikt Fernandez, Eric Domaschke - Gonzalo Castro, Manuel Friedrich, Michal Kadlec, Karim Haggui, Simon Rolfes, Tranquillo Barnetta, Stefan Kießling, Patrick Helmes and Richard Sukuta-Pasu