Six weeks ago, Ellyes Skhiri suffered a fracture to his fibula while playing for Tunisia. Now the midfielder could return to team training ahead of the Mainz game.
On Thursday, Steffen Baumgart still left the question open. “I don’t want to make a prediction “, the FC coach had said about the possible comeback of Ellyes Skhiri, who has already been making good progress on the pitch in individual training since last week.
Baumgart cautious
The background to Baumgart’s reticence was not a delayed healing process, but rather the lack of a green light from the medical department for the Tunisian to rejoin team training. “As long as I don’t get the go-ahead, it’s no use saying I’m counting on him in Mainz,” the 49-year-old had said, immediately qualifying his statement that he would not “schedule Skhiri for Sunday”.
What sounded to some observers like news that Skhiri would definitely be absent on Sunday in Mainz was in fact Baumgart’s hint, made between the lines, that he and Skhiri were only waiting for clearance from the medical staff. After all, the coach had also let it slip: “When he is on the training pitch with the others, he will also find his feet again relatively quickly.
Return to team training this week?
And indeed, it is only a matter of the corresponding recording that proves that the fracture in Skhiri’s fibula head has completely healed again. The training-free Wednesday, on which the defensive midfielder again worked individually on the pitch, offered the ideal time for an imaging diagnosis.
