BREAKING: Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alcantara has surgery on groin

In an unfortunate turn of events for Bayern Munich, midfield maestro Thiago Alcantara suffered a groin injury against Eintracht Frankfurt and will miss at least three weeks per manager Hansi Flick. In his weekly press conference, Flick revealed that the 29-year-old suffered the injury and required immediate surgery.

“Thiago has had an operation on his groin, he will be out for three weeks,” Flick said. “We made the decision to do this now. It’s possible he will be back for the cup final.”

As stated, Flick is hoping to see Thiago back for the DFB-Pokal finale on July 4th in Berlin. Thiago took a hard hit against Die Adler in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday as Martin Hinteregger shoved the midfield at an awkward angle into the advertising board. For his part, Hinteregger blamed the excessive push on being used to having to body up the bigger and stronger Lewandowski. It is not clear if that was the specific incident that caused the injury or if it was completely unrelated.

Still, the contact was undoubtedly excessive:

Already without the supremely talented duo of Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller against Borussia Monchengladbach tomorrow, Bayern Munich’s normal roster has been thinned out due to injuries and player suspensions. The aforementioned duo of Muller and Lewandowski both are suspended due to yellow card accumulation, while Serge Gnabry has been nursing an ailing back. The good news on Gnabry is that he was able to train today. Besides, Philippe Coutinho, Corentin Tolisso, and Niklas Sule are all still unable to suit up for the game.

With Thiago also taken out of the mix, the onus will fall on the tandem of Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka (the future of the midfield at Bayern Munich?) to hold down the fort in the central midfield, with Javi Martinez and former Foal Michaël Cuisance as possibilities to join the starting XI.