Season over: Bayern Munich’s Lucas Hernandez suffers an ACL injury during France’s win over Australia

It’s official: According to Bayern Munich, Lucas Hernandez has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his right knee and will be sidelined for the next several months. The Frenchman went down during the opening minutes of France’s World Cup game versus Australia, having to be substituted off for his brother Theo. Lucas now faces a surgery and several months of recovery and rehabilitation. While not explicitly mentioned, his continued participation in the 2022/23 season can be ruled out.

After reports of Leroy Sane’s injury yesterday, Lucas has become the second Bayern player to suffer a knee issue while on duty at the World Cup. While his salary will be reimbursed by FIFA, Julian Nagelsmann now faces the headache of having to plan a season without a backup right-back and first-choice center-back, roles which Lucas filled in the squad.

The upcoming Champions League tie vs Paris Saint-Germain in February looks a lot more difficult now after this setback. Despite this, Bayern Munich will not make any winter signings to offset the loss of Lucas.

Stuttgart left-back Borna Sosa could have been an option, but Bayern have always been reluctant to make moves in the winter transfer market. For now, it looks like the club will rely on Alphonso Davies and Josip Stanisic to make up the numbers at left-back, and Benjamin Pavard will be added to the rotation at center-back. Now if anything happens to those players, Brazzo might have to reconsider his stance. Facing the likes of Messi, Mbappe, and Neymar without any defenders would be too much to handle.