Hasan Salihamidzic backing Lucas Hernandez to come to fruition at Bayern

After making a handful of starts at the beginning of this season, Lucas Hernandez experienced a significant setback with the ankle injury he sustained in October and it kept him sidelined for just over three months. During Hernandez’s long injury absence, Hansi Flick has continuously shown a preference to a starting back four of David Alaba, Jerome Boateng, Benjamin Pavard, and Alphonso Davies; while Hernandez has struggled to find his way back into the starting lineup even after he returned from his injury layover.

In the latest issue of SportBild (via Bulinews.com) Bayern Munich sporting director Hasan Salihamidizc said he still feels that the club’s record signing will come to fruition soon. Injuries have plagued the better part of his career for the past two years, but Hernandez is a world class defender and Brazzo said he has no doubts the French international will be a valuable asset for Bayern once football resumes, despite all of his setbacks: “It’s unfortunate that he didn’t get off to a good start with us due to injury, but these things happen. Lucas has the quality and the will to come out of such a situation stronger. His transfer was unanimously approved by the board of directors and the supervisory board, and we are convinced that he will be of great help to our team.”

Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images

So far this season, Hernandez has made a total of 14 appearances across all competitions, the majority of which he’s come off the bench. He’s only started one match during the Rückrunde before the coronavirus pandemic suspended the Bundesliga, but he could face increased competition for minutes whenever matches are allowed to resume once Niklas Sule is back fit and available for selection. Once Sule is back, Flick will have four center backs to choose from; five if you include Javi Martinez in that equation, as he can play both in midfield and defense.

There’s still no confirmation yet that the proposed plan from the DFL to resume play on May 9th has been accepted and green lit by the German government, but it will be interesting to see how many minutes Hernandez will get once matches resume. It’d be a shame for Bayern’s record signing to never reach his full potential at the club.