The first training session since the exodus of players for the coming week’s internationals took place on Tuesday afternoon, with a rather small and select group of participants. Trainer Thomas Schaaf had three goalkeepers at his disposal, Nico Pellatz, Sebastian Mielitz and Christian Vander, as well as the outfield crew of Naldo, Frank Baumann, Jurica Vranjes, Claudio Pizarro, Marc Heider and Kevin Artmann.

After the session, the subject of absentees was top of the agenda and Thomas Schaaf explained just why Aaron Hunt, who had recently been out through injury, was allowed to link up with the German U21 national team: "His rehabilitation has gone very well. In the last few days he was given the green light by his doctors and told that there is a chance that he could become involved again in the coming week. He has now joined up with the national team to see if that is really a possibility."

Neither away on international duty nor involved in Werder team training on Tuesday were Per Mertesacker and Peter Niemeyer. Both are currently going through individual programmes as they recover from knee problems. Schaaf said: "Peter could be back with us again in the next couple of days, we’ll have to wait and see. Things are looking good with Per too, he has worked very well but we are not putting any pressure on him to overdo things."