Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka will not require surgery

Per a new report from Bild, Leon Goretzka will not require surgery to repair his persistent patellar tendon injury. It was originally feared last week and over the weekend that Bayern Munich’s number 8 would need an operation on his knee, which would result in a considerable spell on the sidelines during his recovery process.

Thankfully, that will not be the case and Goretzka will continue to work on managing his training load until he’s able to make a complete return to action.

As it stands, Goretzka has not featured for Bayern since the December 4th Der Klassiker win over Borussia Dortmund, when he started and clocked just over 60 minutes. Even for that occasion, it was known that it was a calculated risk to play him with the injury he was carrying, but Julian Nagelsmann wasn’t exactly spoiled for choice in midfield.

Ahead of the Rückrunde opener against Borussia Monchengladbach, Nagelsmann had provided an update on Goretzka, confirming that he was in Innsbruck to have his patellar tendon more closely examined.

“It is important that it doesn’t go on like this, because the condition is particularly unbearable for him. We now have to go other ways to be sure that he won’t be out for another four to five weeks,” said Nagelsmann. “We have sent the pictures to the specialist in Innsbruck and will do another examination and then decide what to do with the knee: whether to try conservatively or take another look I have to, in order to notice the third dimension, whether there is any structure that causes problems.”

With this news coming out of Innsbruck, Nagelsmann can revel in the fact that he won’t be without Goretzka long term, but he still probably will not feature against FC Köln and likely won’t feature for the rest of January. He had a targeted return date of February 5th’s clash against RB Leipzig, but it remains to be seen whether or not that is still a realistic goal. For now, the name of the game for Goretzka is managing the progressive load on the affected knee and making sure he doesn’t come back too soon, risking further complications. It is paramount that Bayern keeps him fit for the resumption of the Champions League next month and the rest of the Rückrunde.

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