Bundesliga Women’s team return to full training

The FLYERALARM Women’s Bundesliga has been suspended since the middle of March– since then, the Werkself Women have trained at home and worked in pairs on the pitch for the last two weeks to remain fit for a possible restart of the current campaign. Now the squad has returned to the training round at the beginning of this week – albeit adhering to the strict hygiene rules and coronavirus measures produced by Dr. Karl-Heinrich Dittmar, medical director and pandemics officer at Bayer 04. If the political authorities agree, the women’s top flight will finally return on the last weekend in May.

Good first impressions on the pitch

The Werkself women only have two weeks to get back into a competitive mode. “The first impressions of my team were very good after the long lay-off,” said Feifel in summing up the first day, “but individual sessions and full training are completely different in terms of workloads,” said the 55-year-old. “Many players suffer a drop off in their physiology and physique with breaks like this but others are less affected.”

“Increase intensity as soon as possible”

Up to the possible restart in a week and a half against rivals MSV Duisburg, “we’re now trying to increase intensity as soon as possible so that we can play at a high tempo for 90 minutes and produce a suitable performance. We have to build it up gradually so none of the players get injured,” explained the head coach. In spite of the short time available to prepare, there are no “extra shifts”: “We’re in a completely normal training rhythm,” added Feifel, who has all his players available with the exception of long-term absentees Melissa Friedrich, Pauline Wimmer (both cruciate injuries) and Karoline Heinze (back problems).