After the clear 8:1 victory against VfL Wolfsburg, FC Bayern have been dealt a severe blow. Josip Stanisic will be absent for a longer period of time. Coach Vincent Kompany has now spoken in concrete terms about the defensive player’s absence ahead of the away game in Cologne
The 24-year-old suffered a capsular ligament injury in his right ankle on Sunday evening. It was already clear during the game that it could be more than just a harmless twist of the ankle. Stanisic initially tried to continue playing, but had to leave the pitch shortly afterwards
At the press conference before the Cologne game, Kompany made it clear that Stanisic will be missing Bayern for quite some time. „Stanisic won’t be back in January, from February onwards we’ll have to see when he can start again. But even then he may miss a few more weeks, depending on his recovery,“ explained the Bayern coach
It is therefore clear that even a comeback in February is by no means certain. Rather, everything depends on the healing process, which is why Munich have to plan without a fixed return perspective for the time being. This is an additional setback for Kompany, as Stanisic can be deployed flexibly in defence and has played an important role in the squad recently
The past few weeks have already been challenging from a personnel perspective. In addition to Stanisic, Joshua Kimmich, Alphonso Davies, Sacha Boey and Minjae Kim were all missing against Wolfsburg. The Croatian’s absence further exacerbates the situation, especially in view of the tight fixture list
Davies should soon be an option again
Kompany was a little more relaxed about Alphonso Davies‘ situation. The Canadian is currently absent due to illness, but there is no threat of a longer absence. „It’s not so bad with Phonzy, it’s winter, he’s ill – it can always happen,“ said Kompany
However, the coach also made it clear that Davies must be carefully reintegrated after his break. „He hasn’t had any proper preparation, now he’s had a break and is ill, the integration will be that we have to throw him in, that he gets fitness over it. Because we have so many games and so little training.“ This week Kompany hopes to at least have a training session „so that we can put him on the bench for one or two games“.
