
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.

Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
Show more
Two Saturdays, one Friday and one Sunday: The dates for the Bayer 04 Women's team games on matchdays 16 to 19 have been finalised. Three of the four matches scheduled by the German Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday will be played at home at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
Show more
Bayer 04 currently have a number of promising young talents on loan to various clubs in Europe with the aim of gaining match practice and furthering their individual development. Francis Onyeka and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht, for example, play for VfL Bochum 1848, while Artem Stepanov is a striker with 1. FC Nürnberg, coached by World Cup winner Miroslav Klose. Tim Oermann is a defender in the Austrian Bundesliga at top club SK Sturm Graz and Abdoulaye Faye is playing in France for FC Lorient, promoted to Ligue 1 this season. Bayer04.de reviews the first six months for the Leverkusen players out on loan.
Show more
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 0-3 loss against FC Bayern on the 14th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
Show more