It was only a minor consolation, but at least David Alaba was spared the freezing temperatures. Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger & Co were outdoors in the November chill on Friday wearing scarves, bobble hats and gloves, but Alaba sported a t-shirt and shorts for his stint in the Säbener Strasse performance centre, where the player worked out on the upper arm ergometer and had physiotherapy in the form of lymph drainage and massage. However, the 22-year-old would much rather have been out in the cold, especially with TSG 1899 Hoffenheim due at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
“It’s obviously a shame when you can’t face your former friends,” Alaba explained to fcbayern.de. The defender earned his Bundesliga spurs during a loan spell with Hoffenheim in the second half of the 2010/11 campaign, but the reunion with his former team-mates will take place off the field this weekend. Alaba sustained a partial tear of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) and damage to the medial meniscus in his right knee in Bayern’s Champions League meeting with Roma two weeks ago.
David does not hold out much hope for his ex-club when they visit Munich on Saturday. “We’ll win,” he declared, although he recognises how well Hoffenheim have come on this term. “They’d already made progress last season, but they’re in really good shape this season,” commented Alaba, “they’re playing very well as a team and scoring lots of goals. That’s their big plus.”
Alaba is aiming to be personally involved when FCB visit the Kraichgau region for the reverse fixture. Two weeks after surgery to fix the knee damage, his recovery is proceeding according to plan. “The knee’s looking good, and it’s feeling good too,” the Austrian reported. He has set himself a personal target: “I’d like to be back with the team in time for the training camp in early January.”
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