
Heiko Herrlich is holding seven training sessions this week ahead of the home game against SC Freiburg – and the Wednesday morning workout saw the new face of Panagiotis Retsos on the training ground. The 19-year-old completed his first training sessions at Leverkusen one-to-one as he picked up a knee injury during the international break in Greece's 0-0 draw with Estonia. That match was his first full international appearance.
While Dominik Kohr and Charles Aránguiz, who both picked up knocks in the game against Mainz, trained individually at the start of the week, Julian Baumgartlinger returned to full training on Monday afternoon after recovering from flu. And Jonathan Tah, who was struggling with a muscular problem, completed his first individual session on Tuesday morning. He had to drop out of the Wednesday session after the warm-up routine due to a back problem but Heiko Herrlich is confident the central defender will rejoin his team-mates on the training ground by the end of the week .
There is good news on Tin Jedvaj who started light training following recovery from his fractured shin. However, as he missed all the pre-season , it will be a while before he is back to full training.
No update on Alario
While the squad moved to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium after the warm-up to work on team tactics in an eleven versus eleven format, Lucas Alario was working on final training. Bayer 04 are still waiting for the Argentinean to get permission to play.

Carolin Simon is the new captain of the Bayer 04 women’s team. The full-back, who joined from Bayern Munich in the summer, will take over the captain’s armband for the 2026/27 season. Simon returned to Leverkusen in the summer after ten years away. The 33-year-old succeeds goalkeeper Friederike Repohl, who retired at the end of last season.
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SV Wehen Wiesbaden undoubtedly envisaged a different start to the new season. After two matchdays, the Hessen side currently sit bottom of the Liga 3 table. On Saturday 22 August (kick-off: 13:00 CEST), SVWW host the Werkself in the first round of the DFB Pokal at their home ground, the BRITA Arena. It was there, in this very competition a year ago, that the club almost pulled off a massive upset. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Farid Alfa-Ruprecht is going out on loan from Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Bundesliga 2 side Hertha Berlin. The pacy winger will be at the Berlin club for one year.
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Heading towards the competitive start of the 2026/27 season together: the Werkself kicked off preparations for the DFB Pokal clash at third-tier SV Wehen Wiesbaden with an open session in front of their fans on Tuesday morning. Before the first-round tie on Saturday 22 August at 13:00 CEST - for which the away section is already sold out - there'll be one more open session on Thursday from 11:00 CEST, when fans have another chance to watch head coach Carles Martínez's men at work.
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