Ribery Reported Injured in Practice Session

The news filtered out from a few sources, but had a different feel depending upon who you listen to. All stories agree that Ribery was injured in a nasty collission with Bastian Schweinsteiger. FourFourTwo Australia says that Bastian came in with a "reckless challenge," and described the incident as a "mishap." ESPN's SoccerNet, perhaps going for a more scandalous angle, leads with the headline Bayern Stars Clash on Training Pitch and says that Bastian "lashed out" at the Frenchman.

The club's official site and twitter feed have yet to comment at the moment I'm writing this, but Soccerway and a few other sites are reporting more or less the same facts. Seems like there was something short of a fight, but a tackle that was perhaps beyond a standard foul. Needless to say, as more information becomes available, we'll have it for you.

We travel to Mainz the day after tomorrow. With Shaqiri already on the shelf, it looks like we might get a chance to see Tommy at LW, which would allow Kroos to stay at CAM and Robben (not involved in the "training session clash" story, for once) to start at RW. Still a pretty good 3-man attacking middie line. The bigger problem would be back-ups, in case of injury or fatigue ... Alaba can play wing if he has to, and we could certainly go 4-4-2 if it came down to it. The important thing is that Ribery doesn't appear to be at any risk of long-term lay-up; he walked off the pitch, so it's probably just a question of whether he misses this week or not.

Stay tuned to this site and to our twitter feed for the latest. We'll be looking into both Ribery's condition, and whether this was a hard, clumsy tackle or a legitimate kick. I doubt the club will have much to say officially, but perhaps one of the players can explain what went down without stirring up further tensions.