Bayern Munich assistant coach Aaron Danks has made it clear that the team’s priority is to give Vincent Kompany the time and space he needs to recover, with the coaching staff preparing to take responsibility for Sunday’s Bundesliga clash against SC Freiburg.
The news somehow got even worse as Manuel Neuer had to go to the doctor this morning and will miss the match, while Aleksandar Pavlović has a calf problem as well.
Following Kompany’s collapse and subsequent hospitalization, Danks will help lead
Bayern Munich in the Belgian’s absence. The Englishman emphasized that the staff would deliberately limit football-related communication with their head coach to allow him to focus on his health and his family.
“We’re going to try and avoid as many football communications with [Kompany] as possible. I’ll exchange messages with him on a care-friendly basis, but not so much a football basis. In terms of the game plan, in terms of the players and the team, we’ll do all that together as a staff. We’ve got René Marić with me as one of the assistants. René’s tactical detail; his opposition analysis is really, really high level. And that’s the way him and Vince work together, so we’ll be using that and continuing that work moving forward,” Danks said(as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “I promise you we’re going to do our best to avoid as many football conversations with Vince as possible, just allowing him his time to recover, be with the family, get himself better, get himself healthy. We’ll take care of the football for as long as we can, and we’ll use the players to help us, use all the staff to help us. And we’ll let Vince just focus on his family and his recovery.”
Danks also provided an update on Joshua Kimmich, who remains away from the team following a bereavement in his family.
“Kimmich is still spending time with his family; he’s obviously going through a difficult period at the moment. So he’ll take as long as he needs to with his family, and then he’ll return to the team,” said Danks.
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich will continue to be without Jamal Musiala, while Kim Min-jae has also been ruled out of the Freiburg fixture.
“Jamal is not yet available; he is still in rehab and taking it step by step. We are looking forward to having him with us in the coming weeks. Kim Min-jae will not be available this weekend as well; he picked up a small strain, and we don’t want to take any risks. He’ll be back with the team next week. Everyone else is available,” Danks stated.
Despite the difficult circumstances, Danks expressed confidence in the squad’s mentality and the bond that Kompany has helped build within the team.
“It’s a difficult situation, we’re only human. You can’t predict a situation like this, but I’ve come to know how strong the boys are, how strong their winning mentality is. We’ve created a family unit over the years, and Vinnie’s played a big part in that. We’re relying on that now and obviously it will help us in this situation,” Danks said.
Bayern Munich now face the challenge of putting that togetherness into practice against a dangerous Freiburg side. With Kompany recovering, Kimmich absent, and several key players unavailable, the coaching staff will need to ensure that the disruption does not derail the team’s momentum.
For now, however, football takes a back seat to Kompany’s health. Danks and the rest of the staff will handle the preparations, while the entire Bayern Munich family hopes its head coach makes a full recovery.
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