First he wore it to protect his recently operated nose, but not for long! Torsten Frings discarded his carbon face mask during training on Wednesday and continued with the session: “I completely forgot to put it back on,” admitted the 31 year old at the end of training. The midfielder has had no pain and no problems with his nose throughout the course of the week.

With the developments of the week considered, the signs are positive for the German internationals involvement against Energie Cottbus at the weekend: “I don’t think that I will need the mask on Saturday,” said an optimistic Frings, who is looking to guide Werder to their first three pointer after a poor start to the season: “If we battle, really give our all, then we will be able to make our technical superiority shine through. But technical ability alone won’t be enough,” explained Frings, who continued: “That disastrous match in Gladbach is behind us now, but we know that we still have to make amends for that.”

All going well, Per Mertesacker could also play a role in Bremen on Saturday. The central defender has confirmed the positive impression that he made over recent days. ‘Merte’ returned to full team training at the beginning of the week: “At the moment it looks very good, we are delighted about that but we are not playing tomorrow, rather on Saturday, so we can give no guarantees right now,” remarked trainer Thomas Schaaf. So far Boubacar Sanogo, Sebastian Boenisch and Mesut Özil have already returned from international duty to work with their club.

Naldo, who still hasn’t fully recovered from an ankle tendon strain, is today, on his 26th birthday, set to go through an individual programme, as is Aaron Hunt. Due to his calf injury, Hunt is out of the reckoning for the clash with Cottbus, but his recovery is coming along bit-by-bit: “I might even be able to train with the team again on Sunday,” noted the 22 year old attacker optimistically.