Sebastian Prödl and Sokratis both suffered the same fate last weekend as they missed the match against Borussia Mönchengladbach due to a suspension. While the Austrian Prödl sat out his second match after a red card, Sokratis was out after his fifth yellow warning. But the centre back duo will be back for head coach Thomas Schaaf against SpVgg Greuther Fürth.

There was a lot of speculation in the past week whether the Greek international could return to the line-up - and in what position. After it was clear that Schaaf would be without team captain Clemens Fritz on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., Sokratis filled in for Fritz in the defensive midfield in training. "Papas is an option there. We saw that in the final days of training," said Schaaf, who would not tip his hand. "You will see what we do on the pitch tomorrow. We will think about it one more time and consider the impressions from training."

In addition to Fritz, who will miss the match with a broken collarbone and rib, other players missing will be long-term injured players Niclas Füllkrug, Raphael Wolf and Joseph Akpala. Youngster Johannes Wurtz is also not yet in the squad as he was only able to train partially after recovering from his foot problems.'s

These 18 Werder players hope to ruin Fürth's debut at Weser Stadium:
Mielitz, Strebinger - Pavlovic, Lukimya, De Bruyne, Arnautovic, Ekici, Elia, Schmitz, Hunt, Prödl, Junuzovic, Ignjovski, Sokratis, Gebre Selassie, Petersen, Trybull and Yildirim