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Bayern Munich’s U23’s have just returned from their week long winter training camp in Dallas, Texas as a part of Bayern’s partnership with FC Dallas. It was an all intensive camp that included two sessions per day and was rounded out with a scrimmage against FC Dallas, which Bayern lost 4-0.
Unfortunately for Bayern, the camp resulted in bad injury for one of their key central midfielders. Per FCBayern.com, MRI scans have revealed that midfielder Paul Will has suffered an MCL tear in his left knee during the camp in Dallas and is likely to be sidelined for a considerable spell. By contrast, the U23’s will also be welcoming back Maximilian Zaiser to the fray after he’s worked his way back from a syndesmotic ligament tear. Maximilian Welzmüller and Jonathan Meier have also returned to training after their respective injuries and took part in team training sessions during the camp in Dallas. The U23’s are next in action on the 24th in the Regionalliga against Ingolstadt II.
For the U19’s, new signing Taylor Booth has resumed training after experiencing trouble with his Achilles tendon during the camp in Dallas, while captain Josip Stanisic has recovered from a groin problem that required surgery. Both Oliver Batista Meier and Jakob Mayer are continuing to work individually on their rehabilitation from their injury problems. The U19’s are next in action on the 17th against Kaiserslautern’s U19’s.
Despite a handful of fresh injury concerns, Bayern’s U23 manager Holger Seitz reflected on the positive camp experience in Dallas, looking forward to getting back into action later on this month (via FCBayern.com):
Of course we were all happy when we came home [in Munich]. We put some extremely intense days behind us. Qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Premier League International Cup made us extremely happy and confirmed our development. The ensuing training camp in Dallas took us one step further in our preparations for the second half of the season in the Regionalliga Bayern.
Spending so much time together in Dallas, he added, only helped strengthen the already strong bond that his squad have:
That’s extremely important to us. The added value of a training camp is that we have a lot of time together. We used the time to have as many one-on-one talks as possible. The boys also spent a lot of time together.