Borussia Dortmund defender Marcel Schmelzer
Bad news has been a visitor to Jürgen Klopp’s doorstep this season. On Thursday, Dortmund received even worse news as their star left back Marcel Schmelzer was diagnosed with a torn groin muscle after Die Schwarzgelben fell to Zenit St. Petersburg 2-1 at the Westfalenstadion in the return leg of the Champions League knockout stage.
Schmelzer sidelined for four weeks: http://t.co/6wSyc4SNa4 pic.twitter.com/b8c4emRmYQ
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) March 20, 2014
Schmelzer said that he was “tripped” and “then felt a pain in his groin”. After further observation it was determined that the German international will miss four weeks of action. During that time period he will miss the match against Hannover as well league ties against Wolfsburg and Stuttgart. Not only that, Schmelzer will miss out on the Revierderby against Schalke, Der Klassiker against Bayern Munich and both legs of the Champions League quarterfinals.
There is a possibility of Dortmund having the Magdeburg native back in action against Wolfsburg in the semifinal of the DFB Pokal on April 15th.
Schmelzer is just one of various players that have been forced onto the ever-growing list of injured players at Dortmund that includes Neven Subotic (PCL/MCL), Jakub Blaszczykowski (ACL), Ilkay Gündogan (back) and Sven Bender (pubis) who are all either missing action for extended periods of time or have had their seasons cut short due to these injuries.
Dortmund will play Hannover this weekend and a loss or a draw combined with a Bayern win against Mainz would see the league title go the way of Die Roten for a second consecutive year with seven rounds remaining in the Bundesliga.
