After knee surgery: The surprising Groß comeback
Six weeks ago Christian Groß suffered a knee injury in training for SV Werder Bremen which required surgery. On Saturday he now made his surprising comeback.
The second division club did not disclose the exact nature of the injury at the time, only that Christian Groß would have to undergo surgery and that the 32-year-old would not be available “in the long term”. Only five matchdays after his last appearance against Hamburger SV, when the Werder captain was sent off after just 31 minutes with a yellow card, he was now back in action. Groß had been substituted in the 84th minute of the 1-1 draw against FC St. Pauli on Saturday.
Even during the week, the oldest professional in the Bremen squad had let coach Markus Anfang know that he was feeling well. So in consultation with Werder’s athletics and rehab coaches, the midfielder was shown a comeback plan. “And Grosso had in mind for himself to be in the squad against Pauli,” said Anfang, who had, however, also expressed a few concerns at the pre-match press conference: “We mustn’t forget that he’s already been out for a few weeks.”
After the final training session, however, the decision was then made for a Groß return to the squad – which also had another absentee in Leonardo Bittencourt (illness) – even though players and coach agreed that “it won’t last long”. Anfang also made use of the substitution option for the last few minutes because Nicolai Rapp was at risk of a yellow card: “I was glad that I had Grosso. “
Pre-match speech
In addition, Anfang gave the vice-captain “two or three tasks” in the dressing room before the game. In the team address, Groß was supposed to “drop one or two things before we go out together,” said the coach: “He did that really well.” In addition to the recently returned Bittencourt, Anfang can now rely on another member of the team squad, which has been completely absent in the meantime due to injury. Currently, only Ömer Toprak (calf problems) is still missing, but he has also returned to training.
