Erling Haaland has missed the last three matches for Borussia Dortmund with an unspecified muscle injury, but the Bundesliga giant won’t see the Norwegian make a triumphant return this weekend as BVB meets Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday.
Dortmund has slumped to defeat in two of the three games that Haaland has missed since picking up his injury in a 3-2 win over Hoffenheim on Jan. 22, but scoring goals hasn’t been the problem.
Instead, Dortmund’s defensive struggles have been exacerbated in the last few weeks; it conceded five goals to Bayer Leverkusen in early February and shipped four more to the Rangers in Europa League play on Thursday.
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With or without Haaland, Dortmund will need to shore things up at the back to have a chance of salvaging its Bundesliga season.
When will Erling Haaland be back for Borussia Dortmund?
Haaland withdrew in the 63rd minute of the match against Hoffenheim in late January and has not featured since.
“Erling is not ready for the game,” manager Marcos Rose said ahead of Sunday’s match against Gladbach. “He has participated in parts of training, but he is not yet fully operational.”
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The news that Haaland has returned to training is a positive sign, and he could potentially be available for a role in the reverse fixture against Rangers in Scotland on Thursday, possibly off the bench. He will be desperately needed if Dortmund is to turn around the two-goal deficit.
If he is unable to pass fit for the midweek Europa League game, he could return on Feb. 27 for the club’s league visit to Augsburg.
How is Dortmund faring without Haaland?
Rose is aware the squad has other issues than just its missing star striker this weekend. “If Erling isn’t there, others have to pull on the chains and prepare the gates,” he said. “I have to say this, too; we won 3-0 in Berlin a few days ago. We kept a clean sheet after a long time.”
The Dortmund boss is referencing the Bundesliga victory on Feb. 13, sandwiched between the two aforementioned heavy defeats. Marco Reus grabbed a brace and Raphael Guerrero added a third, while the back line kept just the team’s third clean sheet of the Bundesliga season.
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Dortmund’s recent slip has seen the club drop seven points back of leaders Bayern Munich.
The club has been fine in front of net, scoring two, three, and two goals in the games without Haaland. His injury coincided well with the return of American attacker Gio Reyna, who has been slowly reintroduced to the squad after a number of months on the sidelines with a hamstring problem. Reyna was included in the starting lineup against Gladbach.
🚨 BVB STARTING XI VS. GLADBACH 🚨 pic.twitter.com/RypqLjbhkU
— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) February 20, 2022
It has been the back line that has struggled for Dortmund of late, with center back Dan-Axel Zagadou especially having a brutal run of games, highlighted by his own-goal against Rangers midweek.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism