Corentin Tolisso resumes ball exercises, still doubtful for Bayern’s clash against RB Salzburg

Unfortunately, per a new update from Tz’s Jonas Austermann, it looks like Corentin Tolisso won’t be fit on time for Bayern Munich’s midweek Champions League clash against RB Salzburg at the Allianz Arena. The Frenchmen is still recovering from a slight muscular problem that he sustained right at the start of the international break, which caused him to withdraw from camp at Clairefontaine with the French National Team.

Per Austermann, Tolisso today resumed drills with the ball after he had spent yesterday doing some running drills at pace to see how everything felt and to check his progress. He still did this individually and did not join the rest of the squad.

According to kicker, Hansi Flick does not want to take any sort of risk with Tolisso and thus will almost certainly leave him out of the squad to face RB Salzburg. With injuries mounting, it’d be unnecessary for Flick to use Tolisso and risk him further aggravating his muscle problem, potentially keeping him sidelined for a considerable spell. It’s the assumption that Tolisso will return to the lineup this weekend for Bayern’s Bundesliga match against VfB Stuttgart, who have been one of a few surprise packages in the league thus far; they’re currently in 8th place in the table.

For Tolisso, this latest setback is increasingly frustrating, all things considered. The long-term injury to Joshua Kimmich has given him a huge opportunity for increased minutes in the center of Bayern’s midfield to really establish himself in the squad, so he’ll want to play every chance he gets. The same also goes for Les Bleus when he’s selected by Didier Deschamps, but now he won’t have to worry about international duty until March 2021.

We’ve seen what Tolisso is capable of a few times already this season. His performance against Atletico Madrid was strong and he was a steady presence in the 4-1 league win over Arminia Bielefeld, but he’s also had some less than admirable performances. Hopefully, he can come back from this muscular problem and really get a string of positive performances and momentum under his belt.

Photo by M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images