It was always clear: Rot-Weiß Oberhausen can only play at the top if there are hardly any personnel problems in the small squad. That’s why this RWO news hurts.

On Sunday (2 p.m.), Rot-Weiß Oberhausen will host the U23 team of Fortuna Düsseldorf in the Regionalliga West. One thing is clear: RWO coach Sebastian Gunkel will have to improvise again.

During the 3-1 defeat at the U23 team of SC Paderborn, which meant losing the lead in the table, RWO veteran Moritz Stoppelkamp had to be substituted early due to muscular problems.

The diagnosis has now been made. After a thorough examination, the attacking player was diagnosed with a muscular injury. Stoppelkamp will therefore not be available to head coach Sebastian Gunkel in the coming weeks.

This means that the already small squad, which also has to do without Jonah Husseck and Pierre Fassnacht, will have to close ranks further to get a grip on the problems.

After the Paderborn game, Gunkel said: “I already mentioned it last week, the guys are on the edge with the English week in the bones. A lot is currently coming together that we can’t fully compensate for.”

Now Stoppelkamp is out, and Michel Niemeyer (muscular problems) was also unable to play in Paderborn. Nevertheless, defender Nico Klaß is looking ahead to Sunday with optimism: “We have to be fully focused against Düsseldorf. Then I’m sure we’ll get back on the road to success.”

Oberhausen have already shown that they can do without their key midfielder, who has scored seven goals and provided four assists in eight games. Stoppelkamp was also missing from the team that beat KFC Uerdingen 1-0 in the derby, but Oberhausen still managed to get the win. They will be looking to repeat this against the U23 team of Fortuna Düsseldorf.

Whereby Fortuna is slowly getting into gear after six games without a win. Most recently, there was a 7-0 win against Türkspor Dortmund, and before that a 2-0 win against FC Gütersloh.