FC Schalke 04 has to mourn several injured players. The first diagnoses are in and are not positive from the Königsblauen’s point of view.

As good as the mood was in the team of Bundesliga football club FC Schalke 04 during the training camp in Belek – three injuries clouded the overall picture. And the prognoses for Justin Heekeren, Sebastian Polter and Alex Kral are not positive, as the Königsblauen announced on Tuesday morning.

For the third goalkeeper Heekeren, who injured himself during a fun training session of all things, the season is over. Heekeren, who left Belek early, suffered an injury to the outer meniscus and the cruciate ligament in his right knee. This was the result of an MRI in Gelsenkirchen.

Heekeren will be operated on in Innsbruck by Prof. Dr. Christian Fink. “We expect at least six months of downtime. But Justin is young, he will work his way back and we will support him with everything we have,” said sporting director Peter Knäbel. Bitter for Heekeren: The new coach Thomas Reis had given him hopes of finding a permanent place in the professional team.

Striker Sebastian Polter, who has also already left Belek, will also be missing for a longer period of time. Final examinations are still pending, the suspicion is a cruciate ligament injury in the right knee. Polter had injured himself during the test match against FC Zurich (2:2) on Saturday. “Polti will definitely be out for longer, that is already certain. We will know everything else in the coming days and then we will also announce it,” Knäbel concluded.

As things stand, Alex Kral will not be able to play a competitive match for Schalke in January at least. He has been training on a reduced schedule for four weeks due to persistent back pain. An MRI in Belek has now revealed that the midfielder is suffering from a disc problem. For the time being, Kral’s training load will have to be reduced again in order to be able to tackle the problems specifically. “It is positive that we have now been able to identify the trigger of the problems. That gives us a perspective of lasting improvement,” explained Peter Knäbel. “Even though we naturally want to see Alex on the pitch with the team as soon as possible, we will give him the necessary rest. In the course of the season we will still need him, and healthy and fully fit. “