Once across the dressing room – the flu epidemic has really caught SV Werder Bremen. Professionals have repeatedly dropped out in recent weeks, and a quartet (Pavlenka, Friedl, Groß, Bittencourt) were absent from the guest appearance in Mönchengladbach last Friday due to illness, and the club had tightened the precautionary measures again. At least everyone is on the mend.
Jiri Pavlenka, for example, is doing so well again that he can accept the invitation to the Czech national team, said Clemens Fritz, Werder’s head of professional football, to our Deichstube. It remains to be seen whether the keeper will be able to work there. Leonardo Bittencourt, Christian Groß and Marco Friedl are scheduled to start training again on Tuesday. This also applies to Manuel Mbom, who apparently has finally overcome his calf problems.
Things are not looking so good for Milos Veljkovic. The Serb will probably have to cancel his international trip due to calf problems. That’s why he dropped out in Gladbach. On Monday there will be another examination and then a final decision will be made.
The high number of infections has of course wormed Werder. Processes have been changed to give players a little more distance from each other. But that’s a bit difficult on the bus or in the cabin, says Fritz: “There’s no perfect recipe.” It’s just a flu epidemic, like the ones that hit many other people. The international break came at a good time from Werder’s point of view. The sick players could recover and their fitness can then be specifically built up in training.