FC Schalke 04 are plagued by injury worries ahead of the home match against Holstein Kiel. At least one regular player is returning.
The personnel situation at Schalke 04 is tense ahead of the second division home match against Holstein Kiel on Friday (18.30/Sky). Dominick Drexler (33) and Kenan Karaman (29) will be missing from the Gelsenkirchen side until further notice due to muscle injuries sustained in the 1-0 defeat at Braunschweig. Karaman has suffered a calf injury. Drexler’s injury is in the adductor area, according to the Schalke team.
Karaman had to be substituted towards the end of the first half in the defeat in Lower Saxony. He followed the second half with a bandaged calf on the substitutes’ bench. Drexler injured himself during a sprint in the closing stages and had to retire shortly afterwards. Since the Schalke team had already made five substitutions at that point, they had to finish the game shorthanded.
Sebastian Polter was also not on the training pitch on Tuesday afternoon. The 31-year-old striker already missed the Braunschweig game due to a laceration on his foot. Accordingly, he will also be absent for the match against the Kiel sturgeons.
But there is also good news: Right-back Cedric Brunner (29) is back. The Swiss has overcome his calf problems and was able to train normally on Tuesday. Blendi Idrizi (25) was also back on the pitch after muscular problems.
Even the return of Brunner is important for the Schalkers – because the squad is very thin on personnel in the defence. The Swiss is the only trained right-back in the squad, which is why improvements will be made in this position before the end of the transfer window on 1 September.
In the 0:1 loss in Braunschweig on Sunday, the trained midfielder Niklas Tauer (22) helped out at right back, but he was not able to do much self-promotion on his professional debut for Schalke. Actually, Tauer came into the game well, already in the first minutes he had to take a lot of physical punishment. “He took a bit of a beating in the first few minutes,” was how Schalke sports director André Hechelmann (38) summed it up. After an unfortunate kick to his head, he had a big bump on his face – and the Schalke player looked a bit unsettled afterwards.
The result: a weak performance and a bad miss before the Braunschweig winning goal by Fabio Kaufmann. Tauer was substituted at the start of the second half. However, the 22-year-old player on loan from Mainz did not suffer a serious injury. Already on Tuesday, he was at least training again in the athletics hall.