The big chill spreading across northern Europe from Russia has prompted the stars to wrap up warm for training this week. Some have covered their faces, and others have applied deep heat to their legs, although even with temperatures dropping to as low as -10, Jerome Boateng made do with gloves and a balaclava. “We have to work much harder in the warm-up, to avoid pulling a muscle," he reported.
Daniel van Buyten is currently spared that risk. During the breaks in his medical treatment, the Belgian is watching his team-mates at work from out of the Säbener Strasse Performance Center window. The centre-half fractured a metatarsal in the Bundesliga restart fixture away to Gladbach and remains some way off playing football, as he can still only get about on crutches.
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