Katowice compact: A returnee, hard work and team evening at training camp

It's almost six months since Melissa Friedrich last had the ball at her feet in training. Shortly after her first goal of the season in the 2-1 win at 1. FC Nürnberg, a torn ligament in her ankle brought her to a sudden halt. On Saturday, the sixth day of the training camp, the centre-back finally trained with the team again, having returned to the pitch last week. Together with the team in Sosnowitz, she took part in interval training and various five-v-five drills, among other things in the morning.

"It's a really nice feeling to finally be back with the team and be able to make tackles," said Friedrich. "That's what you play football for. The first session with the team was really special for me. Now we'll see how things progress from day to day, so that I can hopefully be fully involved soon."

In the afternoon session, there were transitional play, heading and lots of shooting drills on the programme for her team-mates. In considerably milder temperatures than the previous days, the Leverkusen girls completed their seventh session in total since arriving last Monday. Friedrich, meanwhile, ran some laps of the pitch to manage her workload.

Kristin Kögel, Sofia Cava Marin and Selina Ostermeier sat out with knocks. Charlotte Voll, who joined up with the squad on Thursday, trained with fellow keepers Friederike Repohl, Anne Moll and Louisa Remien led by goalkeeping coach Patrick Bade, but still didn't join in with any goalkeeper-specific exercises following her shoulder operation. 

The day ended with the traditional initiation songs for the new players. At a team evening, Vanessa Haim, Shen Menglu, Caroline Kehrer, Cornelia Kramer, Katharina Piljić and Juliette Vidal as well as Ida Daedelow, who recently signed her first professional contract, had to sing a song of their choice, cheered on by their team-mates.

two more sessions on the pitch

On Sunday and Monday, there's one session each on the pitch for the Werkself, as well as a yogo class and a wakeboard team activity in Sosnowitz. The Bayer 04 party then travel home on Monday afternoon, where they'll get back into the rhythm of playing of every week with three friendlies against international opponents: at RSC Anderlecht on 11 August (kick-off 14:00 CEST), at Standard Liège on 17 August (14:30 CEST) and against Fortuna Sittard on 23 August (14:00 CEST).

The new Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga season kicks off on 31 August (14:00 CEST) with the game at SC Freiburg, followed a week later by the second round of the DFB Cup. The full summer schedule and key dates for the women's team can be found HERE.