Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before: Holger Badstuber is back. The German centerback resumed team training on Wednesday and could be available for selection after the completion of the international break.
Badstuber has not featured for Bayern Munich since February, sustaining a muscular injury that cost him the last four months of the season before another injury hit him during preseason. That second injury has cost him nearly three months. And then there’s that whole litany of injuries stretching back to the winter of 2012 when he tore his ACL — the first time — that get added in.
Anything Bayern Munich can get from Holger Badstuber this season is extra. It’s why they went out and bought Mats Hummels. And yet just as Badstuber showed in his comeback last winter — and his comeback the previous spring to that — that when he’s on his game and at full fitness, he’s one of the best centerbacks in the world. Getting to that stage and staying healthy is all that’s ever been missing.