The Werkself number four suffered painful bruising to his lower leg in the DFB Cup tie at Aachen and was only able to train on his own on Monday. However, he is expected to be available for the first home game of the season on Saturday.
Lars Bender is also confident about playing against the newly promoted team at the weekend. The captain has recovered from a pulled muscle and he took a full part in training on Monday before confirming: "Everything's good. I'm on course."
In addition to Lars Bender, Tin Jedvaj returned to join his team-mates. The Croat World Cup runner-up has recently been sidelined due to back problems. The same applies to Lukas Hradecky. The keeper was suffering from gastroenteritis at the end of last week but on Monday he was diving around at the training ground again. Mitchell Weiser is not quite so close to returning. At the moment, he's working one-to-one with rehab coach Daniel Jouvin but he should return to full training in the near future.
Around 4,000 Werkself fans followed the team to Aachen last Saturday and they provided vocal support. "It was really great," said Jonathan Tah about the black and red support at the Tivoli. "We've got ambitious targets in the cup as well. And, of course, that sort of backing helps."
Was it 26 seconds? Or was it 21 seconds that Leon Bailey needed to score the third goal against Alemannia Aachen after coming off the bench? It was "definitely the quickest goal of my career," said the Jamaican who came on with clear instructions from head coach Peter Bosz: "I was supposed to make my runs. The opposition moved further and further up so that left space behind the back four." Bailey did as he was told and was immediately rewarded with a goal one day after his 22nd birthday. "Of course, that was perfect."
Last Thursday, 8 August, Peter Hermann watched the Werkself train together with team manager Hans-Peter Lehnhoff and on Monday the DFB announced the role the Bayer 04 legend has accepted. Hermann, who was at Leverkusen for nearly 30 years as a player and coach, will assist head coach Christian Wörns in running the Germany U18 team. "Peter Hermann is an institution in German football and we have been able to bring him in for our youth teams and also for youth development across Germany," said Joti Chatzialexiou, the sporting director of the national teams. Hermann and Wörns got to know each other at Leverkusen. Hermann was assistant coach to Reinhard Saftig when the former Germany international signed for the Werkself in 1991.
Bayer 04 entertain third-placed VfB Stuttgart in the penultimate Bundesliga home game. The match at the BayArena is today Saturday 27 April (kick-off: 18.30 CEST/live on Sky and on Werkself Radio). The latest information on the game, with fans again asked to follow traffic information, is here in the news in brief.
Show moreAfter three consecutive weeks of playing midweek, the Werkself have been preparing for the top-of-the-table clash against VfB Stuttgart over the past few days. Ahead of the home game on Saturday 27 April (kick-off 18:30 CEST, live on Sky), head coach Xabi Alonso praised the third-placed visitors and gave an update on the state of the pitch as well as personnel.
Show moreThere's no question: VfB Stuttgart are one of the biggest surprises of this season and have delighted their fans with exciting, successful attacking football. After suffering a rare defeat at Bremen last weekend, third-placed VfB are looking to get back to winning ways in this Saturday's big match against the Werkself (kick-off 18:30 CEST). The visitors will be without their playmaker in midfield, though. A look at our next opponents...
Show moreWhether at school, in grassroots sports or at the football stadium – racism and discrimination of all kinds are still prevalent in our society. For this reason, Bayer 04 has been organising preventative school workshops on the subject of racism for many years. This week, one of these workshops took place at the Lise-Meitner-Gymnasium not far from the BayArena as part of the Wiesdorf district matchday - and with a prominent guest: Werkself star Jonathan Tah worked intensively with the pupils on the topic. The German champion and international also spoke about his personal experiences with racism.
Show moreBayer 04 aren’t just the new champions of Germany but are also leading the way in engaging young fans after becoming the first Bundesliga club to release its own Pixi children’s book. Captain Lukas Hradecky and Josip Stanisic presented the 24-page publication entitled ‘Ein neuer Löwe für die Werkself’ (A new lion for the Werkself) at a reading for children in the BayArena's Schwadbud.
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