The Black and Reds – with the exception of the international players – have time until Sunday to enjoy the summer break at their leisure before head coach Peter Bosz welcomes his charges back on Monday at 14.30 CET (open training session). A trio can hardly wait to get going again. "I'm really looking forward to Monday. I think everybody can imagine how it feels to start the new season fully fit after 13 months out injured," said Joel Pohjanpalo, who like Karim Bellarabi, has been putting in special shifts since the start of the week in Leverkusen. "I want to get ahead for the new season especially after this long injury lay-off. And I'd like to be sure that I'm in best shape and fully fit when we start with the full training sessions," said the 24-year-old striker who suffered severe problems in his right ankle shortly after the start of the last pre-season. "Since the start of June, I’ve been certain that everything is fine with my foot – I don't have any problems at all now," added Pohjanpalo.
While the Finn, together with keeper Niklas Lomb, took part in passing drills and finishing, Bellarabi worked with the ball in a one-on-one session with rehab coach Hans-Jörg Schneider and he visibly enjoyed it. The 28-year-old suffered a muscle and tendon injury at the end of March in the game against Hoffenheim that finished his season. Goalkeeper Niklas Lomb rejoins the goalkeeping team for the new campaign after a 12-month loan period at second division SC Sandhausen.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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