For his home debut as coach of VfL Bochum, Thomas Letsch will have to do without a key player for the match against Eintracht Frankfurt (Saturday, 15:30).

Premiere for Thomas Letsch: On Saturday (15:30, RS-Liveticker), the 53-year-old will be on the sidelines for the first time as coach of VfL Bochum in a home match at the Ruhrstadion. His debut against RB Leipzig (0:4) went thoroughly wrong. An important creative player will be missing for the upcoming match against Eintracht Frankfurt.

We are talking about Kevin Stöger. The midfielder tested positive for the corona virus on Thursday after not taking part in training in the morning due to cold symptoms. “He was firmly scheduled and should have played an important role,” Letsch told a media roundtable. Further tests within the squad did not reveal any further positives, the VfL side said. The VfL coach brought in Patrick Osterhage and Philipp Förster as replacements, even if Stöger could not be replaced one-to-one.

Without Stöger and Heintz

Also missing will be Dominique Heintz, whose almost 200 Bundesliga appearances – the most of any Bochum professional – could have given the holey VfL defence the stability it needed. The on-loan player has already been back on the training pitch for three days, but this weekend’s game comes too soon. “He can’t even be at one hundred percent yet.”

The situation is different for Konstantinos Stafylidis. He is definitely a candidate for Letsch’s favoured back five, which will presumably be kept. The full-back has been back on the pitch for a fortnight and has completed the full workload. “He is a player who embodies everything we need.” Whether it will even be enough for the starting eleven remains to be seen.

“He’s just not fit “

At the moment, Lys Mousset is far away from that. The attacker is currently ill but had not been an option for Letsch regardless. “He is simply not fit enough to help the team.” The coach also already ruled out a call-up next week at VfB Stuttgart. “In the relegation battle, it’s about only putting one hundred per cent fit players on the pitch.” Takuma Asano and Paul Grave will continue to be absent.