VfL Bochum have started their preparations for the derby against Borussia Dortmund. This is the personnel situation on Wednesday.

The headlines surrounding VfL Bochum in the past few days have been dominated by fence flag trouble at the home game against VfB Stuttgart (1:0).

Now the focus is back on sport, with the away game at Borussia Dortmund on Sunday (17:30, RS live ticker). After the win against Stuttgart, Bochum started their preparations for the game on Wednesday with a lot of tailwind. However, coach Thomas Letsch will be without two regulars in defense.

As against Stuttgart, Keven Schlotterbeck is out. “It won’t be enough, that would be irresponsible,” said Letsch about the central defender, who is plagued by muscular problems. VfL will also be without Bernardo for the first time this season in Dortmund. The ever-present on the left side of defense has to serve a yellow card suspension.

Maximilian Wittek or Danilo Soares are possible substitutes. In the center, Noah Loosli moved into the first eleven against Stuttgart in place of Schlotterbeck.

Ivan Ordets, who made his comeback as a substitute at the weekend after a long injury lay-off, gives Letsch another option. “He became more and more stable the longer the game went on. If he can do that for 30 minutes at Bundesliga level, he can also play from the start. “

Surprisingly, Letsch did not want to reveal on Wednesday whether Tim Oermann will start again at right-back, whether Cristian Gamboa will return to the team after his yellow card suspension or whether Felix Passlack might even get a chance. “It always depends on what we have in mind.”

In any case, Bochum can look forward to the return of Kevin Stöger in the center of midfield. The man for the creative moments returned to training after recovering from a stomach bug. It is likely that he will form a team with captain Anthony Losilla and Patrick Osterhage.

Some have drawn attention to themselves

Thomas Letsch on the 2:0 test match win against Cologne

However, Letsch may surprise us elsewhere with a starting eleven nomination. After all, Bochum’s second string were given the chance to prove themselves in a secret test match against 1. FC Köln on Sunday, beating the league rivals 2:0. “Some of them really stood out,” praised Letsch.

The 55-year-old spoke of a good test, apart from the cruciate ligament rupture shock to youngster Mohammed Tolba: “It was important for us to give everyone a good workout in the long week leading up to the game on Sunday. We managed to do that. We won and played to nil again. You could tell that the team really wanted to win and we scored two nice goals.” (with gp)