Most of the VfL professionals are off until Tuesday. Three players are away on international duty, two are working on their return.

It was a very small group of players that coach Thomas Letsch had assembled on the training pitch on Thursday. Due to the load management after the test against Enschede and the absence of three national team players, assistant coach Jan Fießer also took part in addition to the four U19 players Cajetan Lenz, Lennart Koerdt, goalkeeper Hugo Rölleke and Mohammad Mahmoud.

He also survived the session well. The even better news, however, came from two players who were scheduled for individual training that day.

While Letsch had planned a tournament with constantly changing teams for the few outfield players and goalkeepers who were actively training, Matus Bero and Christopher Antwi-Adjei even got back to practising with the ball on the lower training pitch.

Bero has been missing for two matchdays, he has been out since the 1:4 against RB Leipzig with knee problems. Antwi-Adjei has been absent from VfL Bochum for four matchdays and the 3-2 win against FC Bayern Munich with muscular problems. In the four games since then without him, there have been four defeats.

Perhaps this is why there is so much hope that he will soon be able to return to team training and will therefore be an option for the important home game against promoted SV Darmstadt on Easter Sunday.

Letsch was hopeful that Christopher Antwi-Adjei would even be able to undergo a final test on Thursday. “If that goes well, he can start fully on Tuesday. With Matus Bero, we’ll postpone that a little longer. Neither of them will have all the time off, logically as injured players. But I’m optimistic that both of them will start on Tuesday.”

If that were to happen, only Tim Oermann would be out alongside the long-term injured Michael Esser, Niclas Thiede, Moritz Kwarteng and Mo Tolba