Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal has divided his squad into two,
putting half of them in quarantine in a bid to keep 11 players fit
for the matches against Borussia Dortmund and Fiorentina.
As the Dutchman reported after his side's 6-2 victory over
Greuther Furth in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday, a virus is currently
doing the rounds.
"That is bad because we have some important midweek matches
coming up and we expect even more players to fall ill in the coming
weeks," he said.
Therefore, Van Gaal invited half of his squad to training
yesterday morning and the other half yesterday afternoon in a bid
to keep those known to be infected away from those who, so far,
have not shown any symptoms.
"The rest will train at a different time," reported defender
Philipp Lahm on the club's website.
"We can only hope that we don't catch anything."
Lahm is one of the fit players who did the rounds in the snow
yesterday morning and his place in the team against Dortmund
tomorrow should be guaranteed.
Ivica Olic, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Daniel van Buyten,
Danijel Pranjic, Hans-Jorg Butt and Miroslav Klose all remain
doubts, on the other hand.
Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp has no such worries after
welcoming three key players back into training this week.
Jakub Blaszczykowski, Sven Bender and Roman Weidenfeller are
all available again, leaving Klopp optimistic.
"We are not just going there to have a look at the stadium,"
he said. "If we give it 100%, then we can steal the fun of playing
football from our opponents."
