Jerome Boateng to miss extended period of time with adductor injury

In the second half of Friday's 2-1 victory against Hamburger SV, Jérôme Boateng went down after a seemingly harmless challenge from Nicolai Müller. Unfortunately, Boateng stayed down, and after being evaluated by the team doctors, had to be helped off the field.

While yesterday it was still uncertain whether this would be a long term injury or something minor, Bayern Munich confirmed the German center back is going to miss an extended period of time with what is being called "a muscle injury in his left adductor area."

As you may recall, an adductor injury is the same injury that caused both Mario Götze and Juan Bernat to miss time in the first half of the season. Bernat, who returned to team training today, hasn't been fit since the end of October, while Götze has been out since October 8 and thinks he needs another two or three weeks of recovery.

If their recovery times are any indication, it would put Boateng on track to return some time around the beginning of May.

This could seriously threaten Bayern's hopes of going deep into the Champions League, as Boateng would have been vital in trying to contain Juventus's strike force of Alvaro Morata, Paulo Dybala, and Mario Mandzukic. Bayern play Juventus in the Champions League knockout stages starting on February 23.

Hopefully a center back combination made up of two of either Holger Badstuber, Medhi Benatia, and Javi Martínez can not only regain top form in the coming months, but also find a way to stay injury free, something all three of them have had trouble with over the last two years.