Bayern Munich’s CEO Oliver Kahn has announced the schedule for Joshua Kimmich to return to training and matches.
“There will be an investigation on December 22nd. We’ll see how the situation is,” said the former world goalkeeper Sat 1 as part of the TV broadcast of the Bayern match against VfL Wolfsburg. The German record champions are currently assuming “that they will be there at the start of training for the start of the second half of the season”.
Kimmich, who refused to be vaccinated against the virus for a long time and then became infected, missed Bayern’s last games due to the illness. Kimmich played his last game so far on November 6th in the record champions’ 2-1 victory over SC Freiburg.
Most recently, the midfielder announced that he would no longer be able to play in 2021 due to lung infiltration. In addition, he announced in an interview with ZDF that he had now decided in favor of a vaccination.
He explained this change of heart on the one hand with the experience he had now made with the illness, with his “bad conscience” towards the family and his Bayern colleagues, but also with the fuss about himself. “Some limits were exceeded,” he criticized. “It wasn’t just factual criticism. I’m also just a person who has fears.”
FC Bayern at Choupo-Moting in a bind
In addition to Kimmich, the also unvaccinated Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was recently canceled due to a corona disease. the image reported that the Cameroonian had to struggle with severe symptoms during the illness, which is why he had not been used in previous games. Like Kimmich, the striker will also be examined again during the week.
“When it’s gone, they will be trained normally. Josh has a normal training plan. We hope that he can join on January 2nd and that we can greet him as he was,” said coach Julian Nagelsmann. Meanwhile, it is questionable whether Choupo-Moting will be used in the Africa Cup 2022, which starts on January 9th.
This is “of course to be discussed from a medical point of view,” said Nagelsmann. On the one hand, because the Cameroonian international is “an important player” and would then be absent at the beginning of the second half, on the other hand, a “re-injury” should be avoided. But it is also clear that the FCB has a duty to park and cannot ignore association rules, especially since the tournament will take place in Cameroon next year, of all places.
