Training restarts, Costa & Robben return

After a 15-day festive break, the Bayern stars reported back to the Säbener Strasse late on Monday afternoon for the first training session of the new year. “We’ve all enjoyed the time with our families and friends. It’s done us good!” David Alaba told FCB.tv, undoubtedly speaking on behalf of the entire squad. “Now we can get back into it again!”

Alaba himself was unable to join the bulk of his team-mates at the start of preparations for the second half of the campaign. The Austrian and Mario Götze, Franck Ribéry and Mehdi Benatia are still pursuing individual programmes as they recover from injury, either out on the practice ground (Alaba, Götze) or in the performance center (Ribéry, Benatia). By contrast, Arjen Robben, Douglas Costa, Philipp Lahm and Juan Bernat all resumed the squad drills after spells on the sidelines in the run-in to the holidays.

One-hour workout

Pep Guardiola took charge of a total of 26 players on Monday, as the pros were joined by a clutch of reserves and youth hopefuls. After a warm-up and a gentle round of Rondo possession drills, the 1,000 or so fans on the touchlines watched their heroes complete punishing stamina runs, bringing beads of sweat to the players’ foreheads despite temperatures hovering around freezing. Guardiola ended the workout after an hour.

Tuesday’s schedule includes a second squad session at 11.00 CET, before the Bayern party sets off for the Doha training camp on Wednesday.