The icing on the cake of a very satisfactory annual general meeting two days ago was the news of Bastian Schweinsteiger’s successful ankle surgery. “Bastian has just texted Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. The operation’s gone very well,” FCB president Uli Hoeneß announced shortly before the end of the event. “It’s all looking a lot better than we feared.”
Surgeons Prof Ulrich Stöckle and Prof Hans Zwipp have now issued a firm prognosis for the player’s recovery. The medics are confident Schweinsteiger will be fully fit again by the time of the winter training camp in early January at the latest.
Schweinsteiger underwent corrective surgery on Wednesday to fix long-term and persistent problems with his right ankle. During the operation, surgeons removed extra-articular (located away from the ankle joint itself) ossification caused by a previous round of surgery.
Guardiola: Bastian really helped us
It looks as though Pep Guardiola’s hopes for his vice-captain to return to action as early as possible will be fulfilled. “Schweinsteiger is a top player. He was the best player in the Bundesliga last season. He did everything - covering huge amounts of ground, passing, scoring,” Guardiola commented on the news of the midfielder’s latest injury lay-off.
“Bastian played through the pain caused by his ankle injury because he was aware of our situation in midfield,” continued Guardiola. During the injury-enforced absence of Thiago, Javi Martínez, Xherdan Shaqiri and Mario Götze “Bastian really helped us,” the coach said.”
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