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Per a new report from Bild (via FCBInside.de), Bayern Munich’s Tanguy Nianzou will face a longer spell on the sidelines as his injury recovery has not gone according to plan. It’s reported that he still cannot complete drills with the ball without pain in his thigh, which is where he had suffered a torn muscle fiber earlier this season. As a result, his training intensity has been reduced. He also dealt with a hamstring injury in the beginning stages of the season, which caused a lengthy spell on the sidelines just after completing his move to Bayern from Paris Saint-Germain.
Sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic provided an update on Nianzou when he spoke on BILD Zeitung: “Tanguy is one of the greatest talents of his year, unfortunately he sustained two complicated injuries, now he is being built up very carefully by our experts. We will still have a lot of fun with him.”
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The 18-year old was originally scheduled to mark his return to action at some point this month, but now, with the setback, the time table is open-ended and there’s no saying when he’ll be ready to play again. The last thing Bayern would want to do is take unnecessary risks and wind up aggravating the issues he has and lose him long term again.
As it stands, Nianzou has still only played a total of 21 minutes for Bayern, which came in the 3-1 win over VfB Stuttgart back in November when he came on as a substitute to replace an injured Jerome Boateng. In the Bundesliga match week just prior to the win over Stuttgart, he was an unused sub in the 1-1 draw with Werder Bremen and likewise the week after in the 3-3 draw with RB Leipzig. Whether he plays again this season or not is up in the air, but it does not look too promising for the youngster. Of course, next season he might also struggle to find minutes once he’s healthy with the arrival of Dayot Upamecano from Leipzig, so perhaps there’s a plan in place to use him more often in Bayern’s reserves in the 3. Liga.