The question remains, whether Kevin Möhwald and Ömer Toprak will be able to feature this weekend. It is unclear whether head coach Markus Anfang will be able to count on Möhwald and the captain Toprak for the game against Karlsruher SC on Saturday (21/08/21, 13:30 CEST).
After suffering an ankle injury against Fortuna Düsseldorf on matchday 2, Kevin Möhwald returned to training this week, but is not yet playing at the levels we saw before the injury. “Möh trained a bit with the other boys this week, but he still feels the ankle every so often,” Anfang commented at a press conference on Thursday. We still don’t know whether the 28-year-old midfielder will be in the Werder squad for the trip to Karlsruhe, who are second in the table at the moment.
It is also not certain that Ömer Toprak will be a part of the squad for Saturday. The 32-year-old defensive stalwart sustained a head injury in the match against Paderborn and has not trained with the team since then. Markus Anfang is confident, however, that Toprak will be able to train with the team on Friday: “His recovery looks positive and Ömer has communicated this to us as well. We still have to bear in mind the fact that we are expecting the ball to be in the air a lot against Karlsruhe, so we have to be absolutely certain that Ömer can play. We will make a decision tomorrow on whether he will be available.”
Jiri Pavlenka will not be with the team on Saturday, even though he trained well this week. “We are in constant communication with Pavlas and hope that he will train well next week with us. He won’t be an option for Saturday, however,” explained Anfang.
All other players are fit and ready to play, apart from Leonardo Bittencourt (knee). “At the end of the day, the most important thing is not who is playing, but rather that the players who do play leave everything on the pitch. We will give our all to pick up points against Karlsruhe,” said Anfang before the away match at the BBBank Wildpark.
