After the New Year's shock about Maldives vacationer Manuel Neuer, the corona alarm at FC Bayern Munich was further tightened at the start of training.
The French Lucas Hernández and Tanguy Nianzou increase the number of professionals infected with the virus at the autumn football championship to six after positive tests.
In the case of national player Leroy Sané and the defenders Dayot Upamecano and Josip Stanisic, "the diagnostics have not yet been completed", as the record champions announced on Monday evening. Coach Julian Nagelsmann will have to open the second half of the Bundesliga season on Friday (8.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga, on Sat.1 and on DAZN) against Borussia Mönchengladbach with a short list of his luxury squad.
After anxiously waiting for the results of another PCR test of all players, supervisors and employees in the immediate vicinity of the team on Monday morning, a prominent returnee was present at the - non-public - exercise unit: national player Joshua Kimmich was able to join in after his Covid-19 infection subsequent lung problems start again. Leon Goretzka, who was injured before Christmas, was also back on the field. The midfielder trained individually with Serge Gnabry after warming up.
Two months after his last appearance in the Bayern jersey, Kimmich, who has since been refined, even seems to be able to play in the classic against Gladbach in view of the shortage of personnel. “He's coming back strong,” Nagelsmann had already assured with full conviction at the end of the round when Kimmich's forced break was further delayed due to lung infiltration.
On New Year's Day, Bayern reported the vacation infections of Captain Neuer, Kingsley Coman (Dubai), Corentin Tolisso (France) and Omar Richards as well as co-trainer Dino Toppmöller. World champion Hernández also spent the vacation in the Maldives and is now in quarantine there. Bayern had postponed the training start originally planned for Sunday by one day after the corona outbreak. The rampant Omikron wave could be the biggest stumbling block for Bayern at the beginning of the new year.
The series champions lead the table with a reassuring nine point lead over Borussia Dortmund.
"We showed what we are capable of," said national player Leon Goretzka about the first half of the season.
The only serious negative outlier was the early cup exit - by the way, with 0: 5 against the first 2022 opponent Gladbach.
Big moves in the Munich squad are not planned in the winter transfer phase.
The move from reservist Michael Cuisance (22) to FC Venice was finalized on Monday.
The 22-year-old Frenchman, who came from Mönchengladbach in 2019 for around ten million euros, is moving to Italy with a significant loss.
“The years weren't always easy, but they were a good lesson for my next challenge,” said Cuisance when he left Munich.