Frank Fahrenhorst has overcome an operation on his broken nose well. The defender, who was forced out of the game against Bayern Munich after just two minutes on Saturday after having recieved an elbow in the face from national captain Michael Ballack, underwent surgery directly on Saturday evening. "It hardly hurts at all any more but my face is still quite swollen and i do have some problems getting air", Fahrenhorst admitted on Monday afternoon.

The 27 year-old has seen television footage of the incident in the meantime and as a result there will be no subsequent hostilities with international team-mate Ballack: 'Fahne' explained: "He left a message on my mail-box directly after the game to apologise and promised to call again. This morning we were able to speak personally. He said he was sorry and assured me it was unintentional. Thats the end of the story as far as I'm concerned."

Frank Fahrenhorst is now concentrated on the future. Following his decline to join the national side for their international friendly in Iran, the centre-half hopes, despite his injury, to take part in Werders next Bundesliga tie: "The medical department will inspect everything again on Thursday and we should know for sure by Monday at the latest", were 'Fahnes' final words on the subject.

Trainer Thomas Schaaf was not only without the services of Frank Fahrenhorst at Monday mornings training. Werders coach had a total of only eight Werder players available. Actively involved were Fabian Ernst, Tim Borowski, Miroslav Klose, Valerien Ismael, Johan Micoud and Victor Pekrul as well as goalkeepers Pascal Borel and Andreas Reinke.

Team captain Frank Baumann (leg injury) and Paul Stalteri (knee problem) were participants in individual training sessions. The rest of Werders squad had either already joined their national teams or are members of Bremens long injury list.