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.
Barely two weeks since beating St. Pauli in the DFB Pokal quarter-finals, Bayer 04 again welcome the Hamburg club to the BayArena for Matchday 22 in the Bundesliga this Saturday (kick-off: 15:30 CET). The visitors received a welcome confidence boost last weekend with a win over VfB Stuttgart, but the head-to-head record is still very much in Leverkusen’s favour, which Kasper Hjulmand’s team will look to maintain. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 2-1 win against FC Köln on the 18th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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In preparation for the Bundesliga home match against FC St. Pauli on Saturday, 14 February (kick-off: 15:30 CET), the Werkself had a full week of training for the first time since the first match in 2026. At the press conference ahead of the clash against the relegation-threatened Kiezkicker, coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the intensive work during the week and the lessons learnt. The Dane also announced the good news that Ibrahim Maza is available again.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen are strengthening the squad for next season with the addition of Serbia U19 international Aleksa Damjanovic. The 17-year-old centre-forward is set to join the Bundesliga club in the summer from Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade. Damjanovic, who also has Austrian citizenship, has signed a long-term contract.
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