After his cruciate ligament rupture, Niklas Süle is on the way to a comeback. Does a special strategy help him? The hope for the EM is alive.
- FCB defense ace Niklas Süle is aiming for a comeback soon.
- "The European Championship is my huge goal," says the 24-year-old, who is currently doing rehab.
- DFB manager Oliver Bierhoff talks about the Bayern star.
Munich - Uli Hoeneß spoke this sentence at the airport in October, but it also arrived at Niklas Süle's bedside. "As it looks," said the then president of FC Bayern before his last Champions League trip as official official, "the season is over." Hoeneß had been asked about the newly suffered cruciate ligament tear of the Bayern defender, and he was still sending afterwards: "The EM has been shelved, you can totally forget it."
Of course, these words were not meant badly, on the contrary. Hoeneß spoke out of conviction and experience from more than four decades in the Bundesliga circus. A cruciate ligament rupture used to be a drama that often led to the end of a career. Today the diagnosis is not quite as tragic, but it is still followed by surgery and a long period of rehab and post-training.
Niklas Süle (FCB): "I am confident that ..."
On average, it takes half a year for players to get back into team training after the intervention, but the downtime varies greatly from person to person. There were players who were back on the pitch after five months; but there were also those who were not fit again after nine months. Niklas Süle, it looks a good four months after Hoeneß's words, belongs more to the first group.
Hardly a week goes by without good news about the 24-year-old's rehab. On Monday morning he ran across the field with soccer shoes, and in the evening he said at an event: "I am confident that I will soon be able to take the next step again with changes of direction and with a ball." That would be an important milestone in his Plan to be fully operational by summer. The opening game of the "Heim" European Championship is on June 12th, almost 240 days after his injury. In his last cruciate ligament tear - 2014/15 as a player of TSG Hoffenheim - Süle was missing 203 days.
Niklas Süle (FC Bayern Munich) at the European Championship? "My huge goal"
"The European Championship is my huge goal," he continues to say, but Süle is now going even further. If the rehab goes according to plan, "it is now my goal to help FC Bayern as quickly as possible and to be an alternative again in the end of the season". His healing process runs "without any complications", and a change in diet has a positive effect.
DFB director Oliver Bierhoff said yesterday: "I'm really happy for him." Süle is "highly motivated and has set great goals", the DFB staff also knows "that Hansi Flick fully supports him". In fact, anyone who observes Süle these days sees a confident man who believes in his big dream. The time when he preferred to train alone and avoid the Allianz Arena even with big games is over.
Bierhoff on Süle: "He should already act moderately there"
"An important player" is Süle, said Bierhoff, who was still cautious: "He should already act moderately." Encouragers are the positive examples that have been given enough. The best: Sami Khedira . Before the 2014 World Cup, the international injured himself later than Süle - in mid-November and not in mid-October - but became world champion seven months and 28 days later.
Lothar Matthäus once made it onto the field even faster. Injury on April 12, comeback after 160 days on September 19, 1992. The current board member Oliver Kahn needed 1994/95 from November 16 to April 22. Of course, Süle prefers to look at these cases rather than at the negative ones, which also exist. Reruptures, i.e. renewed cracks, are not uncommon after quick comebacks. Steffen Freund was like this, Holger Badstuber was considered a permanent patient.
One way or the other: Süle doesn't have to forget the EM. Hoeneß would surely be happy if he had been wrong.
Hanna Raif
List of rubric lists: © picture alliance / dpa / Matthias Balk
