Injury Update: Bayern Munich’s Ron-Thorben Hoffmann has successful knee surgery

Per Bayern Munich’s official web site, goalkeeper Ron-Thorben Hoffmann had a successful knee operation over the weekend on his left knee to repair his medial meniscus. He had sustained the injury during the warm-ups prior to Bayern’s 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena on Saturday. Hoffmann was listed as the backup goalkeeper on the bench behind Manuel Neuer for that occasion due to Alexander Nübel’s injury absence.

The weekend’s clash against Dortmund was the 12th occasion that Hoffmann was listed on the bench for Bayern’s senior squad across all competitions, but he’s yet to make an appearance for Hansi Flick. For the two matches that Manuel Neuer didn’t start this season (first round DFB-Pokal win over FC Düren and the Champions League draw vs. Atletico Madrid in December) it was Nübel who got the nod.

Photo by M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images

In the 3. Liga, Hoffmann has started and played 18 matches for Holger Seitz’s Bayern Munich II, as he took over the starting role there after Christian Früchtl was loaned out to FC Nürnberg. Ironically enough, Hoffmann’s injury was strikingly similar to the one that Joshua Kimmich suffered earlier this season that kept him sidelined for six weeks, so it’s expected that he’ll be out for as long. There’s no guarantee that his recovery will go as smoothly as Kimmich’s, but it’s at least a good barometer for how long Flick and Setiz will be without the goalkeeper.

His contract expires at the end of this season, so the injury came at an increasingly unfortunate time for Hoffmann. Oliver Kahn has just recently denied rumors that Nübel will be going out on loan this summer and said that Bayern plans for the future with him remaining as Neuer’s backup and Früchtl could very well retake the starting spot with Bayern’s reserves since he’s hardly played during his loan spell at Nürnberg.