This was something that Werder didn't want to deal with after the Augsburg loss. Four SV Werder players were bed-ridden a day after the match as Raphael Wolf, Sebastian Prödl, Clemens Fritz and Felix Kroos were battling a gastro-intestinal infection. And Nils Petersen joined the quartet Sunday evening. But while Petersen missed Monday afternoon's final training, the quartet of Prödl, Fritz, Kroos and Wolf were back on the pitch on Monday.

"They were a bit weakened at training, but they are doing a lot better than Nils Petersen. We cannot yet give a definitive outlook for the Schalke match. We'll just have to wait and see," said head coach Robin Dutt at the mid-day press conference. And the team is on high alert as the stomach bug also hit manager Thomas Eichin besides the five players. "We are all running around the changing room with disinfected hands and are trying to keep it from spreading. We are doing everything we can," said Dutt, who still has a slight smile on his face.

After all, the Werder coach is still in a good situation with a deep squad that saw a number of good players have to remain on bench recently due to the high competition level within the team. "We will definitely have 11 very good players on the pitch. That's the most important thing," said Dutt.