
Coach Heiko Herrlich was able to welcome back Wendell. The 24-year-old full-back, who has worked on his comeback in individual training over recent days following the ligament injury suffered away to RB Leipzig, took part in full training for the first time – at least for the first part. "We are increasing the workload day by day but the Bremen game is probably too soon for him," said Herrlich who hopes Wendell will be an option for the final game of the season at home to Hannover 96 (12 May). Karim Bellarabi joined the session later after working on his own in the Werkstatt. According to Herrlich, it was purely a precautionary measure.
Jonathan Tah (hip), Joel Pohjanpalo (rehab training after an ankle injury) and Sven Bender (muscular problem) worked in the facilities at the BayArena rather than on the training ground. "With Sven, we'll have to see how his muscle reacts and whether he may be an option for Saturday," explained the 46-year-old after the training session.
Heiko Herrlich will lead training sessions on Thursday (15.30 CET) and Friday (12.00 CET) before the Werkself head off for Bremen. The two sessions will be closed to the public.


In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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