Trio in the frame for Gladbach match

Heiko Herrlich was able to welcome back three players to the training ground for the morning session. Leon Bailey has recovered from his cold with Karim Bellarabi (knee) and Charles Aránguiz (Achilles) also rejoining their team-mates on the training ground.

Charles Aránguiz back on track

"Charly completed all eight sprints and wanted to do the whole session. Now we'll have to see how he's coped and if there's a reaction," said Heiko Herrlich after the training session. Over the past few days, the Chilean has worked exclusively with fitness coach Daniel 'Giga' Jouvin and gradually increased his workload. To ensure progress with his return, the coach rested Aránguiz in the afternoon. Herrlich was unable to predict the date of his comeback but the boss was optimistic regarding the next few weeks: "Charly is benefiting from his previous experience. It was similar last summer: He joined the squad relatively late and didn't complete that many sessions but then played soon after that – and he did well! Physically, he's basically in good shape at the moment.”

Bailey And Bellarabi: 'looking very good'

Karim Bellarabi and Leon Bailey showed they are fighting fit again in a foot race. "Both of them completed half the sprints. In the moves, we used the pair of them and Aránguiz in a passive role. It's looking very good for the both of them," said Herrlich. During the training session, the man in the mask, Lukas Hradecky, joined the other two keepers. At the end of last week, the Finn completed the warm-up session with the rest of the squad and today he was back in one-on-one session – at first without the mask and then with it, as a safety measure, when the ball was involved.

extend running win against gladbach

On Wednesday morning (10.30 CET), the Werkself  have a final open training session this week before Heiko Herrlich prepares for his fifth match in charge against the Foals behind closed doors. The four previous fixtures have seen the 46-year-old come out on top every time and a repeat would not go amiss on Saturday: "Our aim, of course, is to get a result– preferably picking up all three points. It's important to get a good start." Herrlich does not believe it's a foregone conclusion: "It's always incredibly difficult at Mönchengladbach. I watched our opponents at the weekend – they're on fire and capable of scoring. They will push is all the way."

Fan club meeting at the BayArena

Before the Werkself get going in the league, the Bayer 04 fan clubs have a meeting at the BayArena. At the annual event, which involves around 400 fan club members, there will  also be Bayer 04 management members present. Rudi Völler, Heiko Herrlich, Lars Bender and, for the first time, the new chairman of the board, Fernando Carro, will be involved in the exchange with fan clubs.