Bayern Munich and injury problems go together like wine and cheese. The Rekordmeister never seem to be able to go one season without picking up a handful of impactful injuries that keep key players sidelined for long periods. Manuel Neuer, Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sané, Jamal Musiala, Kim Min-jae, Raphaël Guerreiro, Alphonso Davies, Noussair Mazraoui, Thomas Müller, and a handful of other key players in the club’s squad missed a handful of matches this season through various injury problems, having made life much more difficult for Thomas Tuchel.
Not to mention Bouna Sarr tearing his cruciate ligament and Harry Kane missing the last few Bundesliga matches of the season due to hurting his back in the second leg semi-finals in the Champions League against Real Madrid. Simply put, Bayern were once again hampered with injuries this season in a recurring theme that seems to plague them when it matters the most. The last time luck really seemed to be in their favor in that regard is back in the unforgettable 2019/20 campaign when Robert Lewandowski’s knee injury layover was occupied predominantly during the COVID-19 lockdown phase, where he otherwise would have missed a plethora of key matches in that season’s title race and pursuit of the eventual sextuple.
Is there more going on behind the scenes at Sabener Straße, though, or is Bayern just really that unlucky most of the time? Recent rumors seem to suggest that answers could very lie within Bayern’s coaching staff. Per information from Tz’s Philipp Kessler, Manuel Bonke, and Hanna Raif (via @iMiaSanMia), Bayern is considering the possibility of letting head fitness coach Dr. Holger Broich go this summer. He has been with the club since 2014 after a stint at Bayer Leverkusen in various fitness coaching roles with Die Werkself, but his time could be coming to an and.
It is reported that both Tuchel and even Julian Nagelsmann were not entirely pleased with the injury situations at Bayern and feel Broich might be partially to blame. Hansi Flick was reportedly the last manager that saw eye-to-eye with Broich and Vincent Kompany is likely to bring in someone else to assume his role this summer. Andreas Kornmayer, who served as a fitness coach before going to Liverpool to work alongside Jürgen Klopp, has been a name discussed internally at Bayern to potentially replace Broich upon his departure if that does, in fact, wind up occurring.
While nothing is confirmed yet, this is not the first time there have been disagreements between Bayern managers and physios and or team doctors. Pep Guardiola notoriously had some coming-together instances with former team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt where he would rush players back from injury against the advice of the former club doctor.
Looking for more thoughts on Bayern Munich’s transfer strategy for the summer, including which players we would not mind seeing brought in? What about some ideas on whether or not Bayern Munich is set up to play a 4-4-2? Want even more? Well, we also have takes on Joshua Kimmich’s future in Bavaria, the German national team’s potential cut down, and Julian Nagelsmann’s possible mistake with Germany. Sound good? Then we have you covered with our Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show, which is available on Spotify or below: