Borussia Dortmund have been left to sweat on two stars before the Champions League showdown with Celtic.
Brendan Rodgers has his own injury concerns going into the clash at the Westfalenstadion with Cameron Carter-Vickers a major doubt – but the Bundesliga heavyweights are facing up to their own potential key absentees. Winger Jamie Gittens – who has already netted four goals so far this season – limped off in the 4-2 win over VfL Bochum on Friday night, while Marcel Sabitzer failed to make the game.
Following the full-time whistle in Dortmund, sporting director Sebastian Kehl was optimistic about the fitness of the two key men. He said on Gittens: “It shouldn’t be anything serious. So we hope that everyone will be available on Tuesday. Because we’ll need them.” He then added on Sabitzer: “Marcel is injured and unfortunately hasn’t been able to train for the last one or two days. We still hope that he’ll be back in shape on Tuesday.”
Captain Emre Can also had a warning for his players before the clash with Celtic. They recovered from the 5-1 demolition at the hands of Stuttgart just days before – but only after falling 2-0 behind to struggling Bochum.
Can told DAZN: “No one in the stadium really knew what was going to happen (when we fell 2-0 behind). One thinks that it’s definitely not looking good, but I had feeling we could turn it around. We can’t just start playing after going down 0-2. We must be present from the very first minute. This has happened far too often. We must be honest and learn from that. We still showed character.”
However, boss Nuri Sahin put more of a positive spin on the victory – adding: “Sometimes one has to suffer in order to learn. We kept our composure, kept playing, and deserved to win. I’m grateful the team kept things clear in their head. I got a great vibe from them at half-time in the locker room.
“There are clearly issues we still need to address before our next game against Celtic because going two goals down is unacceptable. Our defending needs to be looked at because they were 2-0 up and had a chance to make it 3-0 which would have given us a huge problem.
“We can’t start suddenly playing when we are two goals down. That said, I was absolutely delighted with the application shown by the players because they refused to give up and fought back to win.
“We stayed calm, kept playing and deserved to win. We showed huge character. Sometimes you have to suffer to learn. I like a team who fight back to win – Bayer Leverkusen did that on many occasions last season.”