
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.

The German Football League (DFL) has announced the three candidates for the title of Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for January. That includes Werkself player Jarell Quansah. Fans of Bayer 04 can vote for their favourite on the Bundesliga app from now until Thursday, 5 January (23:59 CET).
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The Leverkusen eSports team picked up valuable points and made up ground in the overall table with a top four finish in the offline round in Showdown 4 in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. In the round of 16, Showdown 1 winners Bayer 04 defeated the unbeaten runners-up in the previous round, VfL Bochum, in a thrilling penalty shoot-out. The Landwehr cousins, themselves the current club runners-up, then beat the current club champions and Showdown 3 winners RB Leipzig. It was not until the semi-finals that they lost out to the eventual showdown winners Borussia Mönchengladbach.
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Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
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Bayer 04 have agreed a loan deal for Jeanuel Belocian to join fellow Bundesliga club Wolfsburg on loan until the end of the season. The 20-year-old defender’s contract in Leverkusen runs until 30 June 2029.
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Bayer 04 have recalled Tim Oermann from his loan at Sturm Graz and will now include the centre-back in the team’s plans for the rest of the 2025/26 season. The Germany U21 international signed for the Werkself from Bochum in summer 2025 on a contract until 30 June 2029.
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