Injury Update: Bayern Munich expecting October return for Hiroki Ito

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Since joining Bayern Munich from VfB Stuttgart in the summer of 2024, Hiroki Ito has had incredibly unfortunate injury luck. He experienced his first setback during a preseason friendly last summer, having been forced to come off after just twenty minutes in the 1-1 draw with FC Düren in what was later confirmed to be a metatarsal fracture. That injury kept him out of action up until the middle of February for the German Rekordmeister, and only seven matches after making his return, he re-injured

his metatarsal and has been out ever since.

Ito’s misfortune is consistent with Bayern’s notoriously horrendous injury look, and both Alphonso Davies and Jamal Musiala are also on the long-term injury list, giving Vincent Kompany plenty of headaches. Thankfully, though, there’s some slightly refreshing news on the Ito front.

Per information from kicker’s Frank Linkesch (via @iMiaSanMia), Bayern is currently expecting an October return for Ito, as he would be the first of himself, Davies, or Musiala to make a return to action. Davies is expected to be back at some point in November, while Musiala is expected to return after that.

Photo by Marcel Engelbrecht - firo sportphoto/Getty Images

Naturally, there is added impetus for Bayern not to rush Ito back too soon, especially due to the fact that it’s the same exact injury that plagued his maiden season with the club. Kim Min-jae has gone through a similar process with the amount of calf pain he wound up playing through for large portions of last season, so much to the point that a Korean doctor has recommended he take extended time off. In the past, Manuel Neuer had also suffered metatarsal reinjury after he came back a bit too soon from his initial injury.

The days of the tensions between Pep Guardiola and Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt as a result of the Spaniard not always heeding the full advice of the team doctor in his personnel decisions are long gone, but precautions can never be taken too lightly. Kompany’s squad is already thin enough with the number of injuries there are in addition to having lost Thomas Müller and Leroy Sané this summer.

Hopefully for Bayern and Ito, his recovery process continues to go according to plan, he’s able to make an October return, and go on to make far more than the eight appearances he made across all competitions last season.

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