Mitchel Bakker and Karim Bellarabi have been "affected. There were several collisions yesterday," said Gerardo Seoane at the pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon. Good news: "There are no obvious injuries." With a number of players it is a matter of wait-and-see if they are available for Sunday.
The 42-year-old has no complaints about the packed fixture schedule: "That's what we want. Weeks with midweek matches is what we love. We are already looking forward to testing ourselves against the next opponents."
And they are DSC Arminia Bielefeld. The team from East Westphalia have picked up four points from their first six league matches. The Leverkusen boss talked about the approach of the team under Frank Kramer: "They try to get forward and play straight through and they have a certain physical presence. I've never been to the stadium at Bielefeld but I have been prepared for what to expect there."
The in-form Moussa Diaby currently has four yellow cards in the Bundesliga and that means the France international is in danger of picking up a one-match ban. In response to the question of whether the winger may be rested against Bielefeld in view of the forthcoming top match against Bayern Munich: "The card will probably happen at some point. Whether he comes off the bench or starts on Sunday – I see the risk as the same. Either he plays a full part or not at all."
Definitely ruled out are the long-term injured players Edmond Tapsoba, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Julian Baumgartlinger. And goalkeeper Niklas Lomb, Exequiel Palacios and Emrehan Gedikli may not travel as was the case in the Europa League. It remains to be seen if the recently ill Robert Andrich will make an appearance.
Match information:
Broadcasters: DAZN and Werkself Radio
Referee: The match officials will be announced on the day of the game
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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