The new year begins with a forced break for Stefan Drljaca. The Dynamo Dresden goalkeeper is injured.

Third-division club SG Dynamo Dresden will start 2024 without their number one Stefan Drljaca. In the last game of the year at Arminia Bielefeld (1-0), the 24-year-old had to be substituted after a treatment break.

“The SGD’s first-choice goalkeeper sustained a muscle injury in his right thigh during the away game in Bielefeld. This was revealed by an MRI scan at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital in Dresden,” the club, who are currently second in the 3rd division, announced on the day before Christmas Eve.

The next steps will probably not be discussed in more detail until after the holidays. “In close consultation between the doctors at the University Hospital, the medical department of SGD and the player, a decision will be made in a timely manner about the further course of treatment and any rehabilitation measures,” the club said in a statement.

The goalkeeper is facing a lengthy absence. “As things stand, Stefan Drljaca will not be fully available to head coach Markus Anfang until the second half of the new year at the earliest,” the SGD will start the first few games of the new year with a different goalkeeper between the posts.

Drljaca, who was born in Homburg, has played in all 20 third division games for Dynamo this season, keeping his goal clean seven times. Kevin Broll (28) is available as a replacement, but was absent due to illness in Bielefeld. At the Bielefelder Alm, 19-year-old Erik Herrmann made his third-division debut after Drljaca’s injury, playing just a few minutes.

The 2024 football year starts for Dynamo Dresden on January 20 against SV Sandhausen. The game against Borussia Dortmund II a week later (January 28) could also come too early for goalkeeper Drljaca.