Following the 1-0 home win in the Bundesliga against Eintracht Frankfurt, the Borussia Dortmund first team players once again had to recover quickly. Only the reserves were in action during Sunday's public training session. The starting 11 from Saturday completed their recovery session in the weight room. On Monday, the final training session was on the schedule—the only joint session before the DFB Pokal match against Werder Bremen. Carney Chukwuemeka had sat out parts of Sunday's training to manage his workload. In the final training session, he proved himself fit to play.
While Chukwuemeka is set to be in the squad for the DFB Pokal match as planned, backup goalkeeper Alexander Meyer may be sidelined. The goalkeeper missed Sunday's and Monday's sessions due to illness. "We won't take any risks tomorrow," Niko Kovac made clear, explaining that Meyer had recently been sidelined with a cold and a fever.
Konstantinos Karetsas will definitely not be on the roster. The midfielder suffered a ligament injury in his right foot during the Bundesliga away game at Union Berlin and will also have to sit out the match against Werder Bremen. Kovac commented: "He's not ready to play yet. He's starting to run straight again without pain. He's feeling positive, which makes me happy. But he's not an option for tomorrow's game. We'll see if he'll be ready again by the weekend."
In addition to Konstantinos Karetsas and possibly Alexander Meyer, as well as the long-term injured players Emre Can, Giannis Konstantelias (both torn cruciate ligaments), and Justin Lerma (muscle injury), Ramy Bensebaini will also be out. The BVB defender is serving his second—and thus final—game suspension in the Cup after receiving a red card in the Super Cup against Bayern Munich.
