Sven Bender took a knock to his right ankle in a challenge after an hour of the training session. He received treatment on the pitch before being taken to the dressing room by the physios. According to the medics, the 29-year-old central defender has not suffered a serious injury. And Heiko Herrlich is hopeful his number five will be available for Saturday. The keeper Thorsten Kirschbaum also had to drop out after 30 minutes due to a thigh problem.
Lars Bender and Kai Havertz did not train on Wednesday. The captain took a tumble in yesterday's afternoon session and today worked on his own in the gym at the BayArena. The same goes for the youngster Havertz who was rested by the coaching staff as a precaution. "Kai is only 19, he took part in all the sessions in the pre-season and he has played a lot of football recently – it is part of my responsibilities to him to make sure he is not exposed to extreme workloads like yesterday's training by resting him from time to time so we don't overextend him," said Herrlich before adding: "Theoretically, he could have completed the whole session today." The situation with Lars Bender is more involved but the Werkself head coach did emphasize he is including the number eight in his plans for the Gladbach game on Saturday as things stand.
There is optimism regarding Charles Aránguiz – particularly after the blow of losing Julian Baumgartlinger due to a knee ligament injury. "Charly is looking really good and he's improving in leaps and bounds at the moment," declared Herrlich in describing the condition of the 29-year-old Chilean who has been less involved over recent weeks due to knee problems. It appears unlikely that Aránguiz will feature on Saturday.
In spite of the many injuries and knocks, Herrlich is relaxed ahead of the start of the league campaign. "We still have an incredible number of outstanding players and quality on the pitch. I'm sure we can compensate for the absentees," said Herrlich, who has organised two further training sessions ahead of the opening league fixture – both behind closed doors.
The Werkself kicked off the final international break of the current season on Monday morning with the first of three open training sessions this week. While eleven Bayer 04 players will be away on international duty in the coming days, the other players will be working together in Leverkusen. The next challenge in the Bundesliga awaits on Saturday, 4 April (kick-off: 15:30 CEST) with the home game against VfL Wolfsburg.
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Due to maintenance work, the online shop and other digital services from Bayer 04 Leverkusen will be temporarily restricted or unavailable from Monday, 23 March (18:00 CET) to Thursday, 26 March. Bayer 04 will provide immediate updates via the club's official channels if the work is completed earlier than planned. The overview.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 1-0 win against FC Carl Zeiss Jena on the 21th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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Thanks to a masterstroke from Katharina Piljic, the Werkself secured their eleventh win of the season in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga. On Sunday evening, coach Roberto Pätzold's team beat FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1-0. Midfielder Piljic scored the winning goal with a volley into the corner from the edge of the box (19’) in front of 633 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium - and ensured that Leverkusen moved up to fifth place in the table for at least one night with 34 points.
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Bayer 04 will have to make do without forward Martin Terrier in the next few weeks. The Frenchman sustained a muscle injury in his right hamstring in Saturday's 3-3 draw at Heidenheim in the Bundesliga.
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