Bayern may be without Franck Ribéry for longer than originally hoped, coach Pep Guardiola announced at Friday’s press conference prior to the Bundesliga showdown away to Borussia Dortmund. “He’ll be out for a long time,” Guardiola revealed. France star Ribery sustained a partial fracture to a rib in his country’s 3-0 victory over Ukraine in last Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying play-off second leg in Paris.
The German champions had initially hoped Ribéry might even be fit enough to play a part in Wednesday’s Champions League Group D trip to Moscow and the reverse fixture against CSKA. Guardiola has now revised his target and hopes the left-sided superstar will recover in time to feature at the Club World Cup in Morocco from 14 to 21 December.
There was better news regarding Claudio Pizarro. The veteran ruptured a muscle bundle in his thigh in late October but was able to go jogging for the first time on Friday. Pizza performed the light exercise out on the practice ground for around 20 minutes before returning to the Performance Center to keep working on his sports rehab programme. The Peruvian will slowly increase his training burden over the next seven to ten days as he works his way towards resuming squad training.
Xherdan Shaqiri resumed jogging exactly a week ago. The Swiss international is also making slow but steady progress towards resuming the usual schedule. Vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger (ankle surgery) and Holger Badstuber (cruciate) are continuing their own individual sports rehab programmes.
