It did not look good at first sight. Karim Bellarabi overstretched his right knee during a session on Saturday (4 August) in Zell am See. He remained on the ground for several minutes and had to receive treatment. Karim wanted to train with the team in the afternoon but the medical section decided to take him out of training for a closer examination.
He underwent an MRI scan. The diagnosis: a slight strain to the anterior cruciate ligament. Following discussions with the doctors, head coach Heiko Herrlich decided to rest Karim for two weeks.
Charles Aranguiz (knee) will also have to wait for a couple of days. The Chilean midfielder has worked well on his own but he will not be able to join in with team training this week.
The same applies to Leon Bailey, who picked up a painful shoulder injury in the friendly against Basaksehir Istanbul. Heiko Herrlich believes the Jamaican will rejoin his team-mates in training next Tuesday. He will not be available for the DFB Cup game at Pforzheim (18 August).
Isaac Kiese Thelin could feature in the friendly against Valencia (11 August). The Swede trained for the first time with his new team-mates on Wednesday and he made a good impression. "He scored five goals with headers," reported Heiko Herrlich. "Of course, he needs time to settle in but we want to take him to Valencia."
The Bayer 04 Women have made good use of the international break. In stormy weather, the Werkself beat top-flight Dutch team NAC Breda 8-1 in a friendly on Thursday afternoon. Caroline Kehrer (5’/18’), Paulina Bartz (15’), Valentina Mädl (38’/69’/79’) and Vanessa Fudalla (53’) scored for the Leverkusen side.
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Six Leverkusen players will be on the road during the first international break of the current season. While one is set to play for Germany in the final round of the UEFA Women's Nations League, another could be making her debut for the Germany U19s.
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The next match in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga has been scheduled: The Werkself will play their Matchday 11 game on a Saturday afternoon. This was announced by the German Football Association (DFB) on Wednesday afternoon.
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Bayer 04 welcomed former Chinese forward Chen Yang, the first player from his country to play in the Bundesliga, to the BayArena on Monday as part of a collaboration with Bundesliga International. The initiative aims to promote Bundesliga stories and behind-the-scenes content for the Chinese market ahead of the launch of Chen’s Douyin (China’s TikTok) social media channel later this month.
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