On Wednesday, VfL Wolfsburg will start their preparation for the second half of the season, but Kevin Mbabu will be missing. The Swiss has once again been infected with COVID-19.
Training is set to kick off at VfL Wolfsburg on Wednesday at 4.30pm, with coach Florian Kohfeldt’s team expected to be back on the training pitch at around 5pm. “We will see a different VfL Wolfsburg in the second half of the season “, the coach has already announced.
There is a lot to do. And there are the first problems again: right-back Kevin Mbabu has another COVID-19 infection, is in quarantine in his holiday destination Dubai and will miss out for the time being. It’s the next episode with the Swiss, who has posed many a challenge to VfL in recent weeks.
Procedures adapted for Mbabu
According to information, almost all players at Wolfsburg are now vaccinated, boosted or recovered. Mbabu, however, has recently been the exception – and has caused many an organisational hurdle. Especially since unvaccinated players are no longer allowed to stay in hotels in some German states. This affected Mbabu, who was often no longer allowed to be with the team when they slept at the Ritz-Carlton in Wolfsburg before their home games. Rules had to be followed, procedures such as team meetings had to be changed especially for the Swiss international, who in July 2020 became the first VfL professional to have a COVID-19 infection.
Weghorst the next challenge?
For example, in the last first-round match in Munich (0:4), Mbabu, who was initially on the exclusion list due to muscular problems and then surprisingly was fit after Dodi Lukebakio dropped out at short notice for personal reasons, was not allowed to eat with the team. At the away match in Mainz at the beginning of December (0:3), Mbabu and Lukebakio, who was also said to be unvaccinated at the time, were reportedly accommodated in Wiesbaden in Hesse instead of in Rhineland-Palatinate. Organisational pitfalls in the midst of the pandemic.
At least these problems will soon be a thing of the past for VfL once Mbabu is deemed to have recovered, hopefully with a mild course of events. But the next challenge may await when Wout Weghorst, who contracted the coronavirus in mid-October and has so far been sceptical about vaccinations, loses his convalescent status.