Team captain Clemens Fritz will leave the Werder training camp Jerez de la Frontera Sunday morning and fly to Berlin for further examinations. The 33-year-old defender, who has been dealing with hip pointer problems since the start of preparations last Monday and has been unable to participate in team training, will be examined in the German capital by Dr. Jens Krüger to see if groin surgery is necessary.

"We ruled out all other causes for my problems in the past few days, now we want to see if groin surgery could help. In consultation with our team doctor Götz Dimanski, I would then undergo the operation in Berlin," said Fritz, who underwent a double-sided groin operation in 2007 by the same doctor. "In principal, I am an optimist and hope that an operation is not necessary. Should it turn out to be unavoidable, then I assume I will have recovered in four weeks," said Fritz.

Fritz suffered the injury in training before the last match of the first half against Leverkusen and went through a rehab program during the winter break. Problems came back up during the second training session of the year last Monday. The fullback has been one of the regular starters and leaders this season, playing in 14 of 18 competitive matches.