Training canceled: Wolfsburg goalkeeper Casteels is threatened with an injury break!

VfL is likely to lose Koen Casteels in Freiburg on Saturday! The goalkeeper and captain of the Wolfsburg Bundesliga team had to stop the final training session on Friday. The reason: The 29-year-old has hip problems that stem from the game against Union Berlin. Should Casteels not be enough, Pavao Pervan is between the posts.

Wolfsburg’s final training session was only a few minutes old when Casteels had to leave the field again. Wolfsburg’s undisputed number 1 had previously warmed up with goalkeeping coach Pascal Formann, but Casteels was absent from the small-sided game with his colleagues. Apart from the duels in the Champions League at FC Sevilla, in the league against Dortmund (both at the end of November last year) and in Mainz (beginning of December), Casteels was always there. At that time, the goalkeeper was missing because of Corona. Not good: Wolfsburg lost all three games without him. Also not good: The otherwise reliable Pervan, whose contract the club recently extended, had not looked good in the bankruptcy in Mainz with the first two goals conceded.

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The duel with Union was Casteels’ 219th game in the Bundesliga, so the Belgian goalkeeper was level with his compatriot Daniel Van Buyten, in Freiburg he can become the record Belgian in the Bundesliga – if he can play at all. While the goalkeeper’s session ended quickly early on Friday afternoon, Lukas Nmecha pulled through. The dangerous striker celebrated his comeback against the Berliners after a serious ankle injury. It can be assumed that coach Florian Kohfeldt will increasingly rely on the trio of Lukas Nmecha (in front), Max Kruse and Jonas Wind (behind). However, the coach left open whether that will be the case in Freiburg. “Above all, we want to bring him up clean in the last rehabilitation phase, so we don’t overload him too early,” says Kohfeldt.

The German national player was able to train this week without any problems. The coach: “You could see that he was able to set impulses against Union. There are definitely more minutes in it, but there is a question mark as to whether it will be enough for the starting XI.” It’s quite possible that the VfL coach will trust Bartosz Bialek again up front, who in turn made a surprising start against Berlin and was convincing.

It’s clear: With Freiburg, a different caliber than Union is waiting for the Kohfeldt team. The coach, who wants to win the ball early in the duel with the Breisgau club, knows that because: “If we always win the ball too deep, then it will be difficult because Freiburg are simply too busy and always stay organized it would be difficult to score.” His team need “precision” and “courage” when playing with the ball in order to survive sixth in the table.

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