Kovac: Schlotterbeck still being assessed; fixture congestion during international break

On October 10 at 02:30 Beijing time (CET), Borussia Dortmund will host Werder Bremen in the fifth round of the Bundesliga. Ahead of the match, Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovač held a press conference. This is the first part of the press conference.

Nico, the most urgent and certainly most anticipated question is: what is Nico Schlotterbeck's current status? Will he be able to play in Friday's match, or is it only possible next week? What is the specific nature of his injury and his recovery progress?

Hello everyone. The current situation is that Schlotti is already doing individual rehabilitation training. We only started our training camp today, or rather from Tuesday, so he hasn't yet rejoined full team training. The plan is for him to participate in full team training tomorrow. Then, depending on how that goes, we'll assess the situation for Friday's match and decide whether he's fit to play.

To follow up, does that mean it's entirely possible he could be called up or even play on Friday?

Yes, it is indeed possible. Anyone who knows Schlotti knows he's always extremely eager to play; he has that strong drive. However, we'll discuss it tomorrow together and, of course, consult closely with our medical team for their professional opinion.

Hi Nico, how are the other players physically? Particularly Julian Ryerson—I recall he had a minor collision—and are there other players who returned from the international break with injuries or minor issues?

Yes, as Sven said, this break was relatively long. But in my view, it was far too long, because if you have to play four matches during this period with lots of travel, and the squad sizes are actually relatively small—even though Germany took a different approach this time, all other nations only called up a limited number of players, meaning our players traveled frequently over long distances.

Currently, we have two players with some cold and fever symptoms, and of course we need to monitor how things develop over the weekend. It's clear that Mathis (Albert) won't return from America until tomorrow. Ramy (Bensebaini) played 30 minutes in a friendly yesterday and is now coming back from Africa. Julian took a knock, but we're not yet sure if he'll be available for this weekend's match. So in any case, we need to wait for tomorrow's assessment to see if playing over the weekend is feasible. Additionally, Emre Can returned from Austria with minor muscle discomfort.

So it can be said that this international break, or these four consecutive international matches, has been an absolute overload for me, and that needs to be stated very clearly. Because I was also a national team coach and I know very well the responsibilities you have in that position, and the real urgent need to compete for points and achieve success. But personally, I prefer the old system. Yes, it's not about us club coaches being away for two weeks, but because the players face a completely different match load and completely different physical management. However, I can also understand national team coaches who basically let their key players play the full match from start to finish, because for them the results are equally crucial.

Hi everyone, thank you very much. I'd like to follow up and ask: over the past two and a half weeks, how frequent and detailed have been your communications and coordination with the various national team coaches?

At our club, our fitness department usually establishes direct contact and links with the medical and fitness teams of the various national teams where our international players compete. As for Jürgen Klopp, I communicated with him personally. All other coordination and communication is handled by our fitness department.

Nico, you just said that as a former national team coach, you understand this situation very well. However, Greek national team coach Jovanović recently stated publicly that he would make no concessions or special arrangements regarding Karetsas. The current situation is that in previous matches...

He said that?

Yes, he said it in a press conference. But I don't want to dwell too much on that specific statement. I want to ask: how much of a difficult balancing act is this? For such a young, raw talent who has just come back from trauma, what measures have you taken to manage this fixture overload? And I have a follow-up: Maximilian Beier was one of the few players who stayed with the club. How do you think he used this break?

Yes, regarding the first question, as I said before, I can only say that I'm very aware of how high the expectations are for national team coaches. Regardless of which country they coach, the social and public expectations are very high, so it's completely understandable that a coach naturally wants to field his best players.

As for Konstantinos, his total playing time with the national team was actually a bit more than we anticipated, and I think everyone saw that. He's also one of the players currently showing cold symptoms. The high load of consecutive matches combined with long travel really left him very fatigued, and we'll monitor his condition over the weekend. However, communication between the two parties has always existed; there's no doubt about that.

Regarding Maxi, yes, Maxi used this time very well. In the first week of the break, we gave him a rest period, just as we did with Sabitzer, along with a very systematic and standardized individual running training plan. In the second week, since they were the only two players left with the first team, we arranged for them to participate in the second team's technical football training so the guys could also have contact with the ball and do ball exercises. Then on Tuesday, the entire squad came together for training, so he and Sabitzer are now in very good condition, in great shape, and fully capable of competing for a place in this weekend's lineup.

Tradotto dall'IA.

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