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Joshua Kimmich is one of few players at Bayern Munich that oftentimes seems to be impervious to the rotations Julian Nagelsmann needs to make sheerly based on the tight congestion of matches across all competitions. Without a trace of doubt, Kimmich’s name is always one of, if not the, first name(s) on Nagelsmann’s team sheets and he’s the type of player that just doesn’t seem to require as much rest and recuperation as some of his teammates or midfield counterparts.
So far this season, Kimmich has only missed one match for Bayern, which was their 5-0 win over Viktoria Plzen in the UEFA Champions League group stage. For that match, he was out with a coronavirus infection, but returned for the season’s first installment of der Klassiker against Borussia Dortmund just four days later, which ended in a 2-2 draw. Adding to that, aligned with the idea that Kimmich is a future captain for both Bayern and Die Mannschaft, he’s already worn the armband a total of seven times this season, partially due to the absence of both Thomas Muller and Manual Neuer.
Fitness-wise, last season was a bit of an outlier, given Kimmich’s unvaccinated status coming with stricter quarantine rules when he had come into close contact with a COVID positive individual. He also had the virus at one point before getting vaccinated and missed the better part of November and December for Bayern. The season before that, he had surgery to repair a meniscus issue, but he recovered remarkably quick and only missed five Bundesliga matches in that Hinrunde. Aside from those two separate instances, Kimmich has been one of Bayern’s fittest, most injury-free players, which is something he recently said comes down to the hard hours in the weight room and working with the physios off the pitch.
“It takes a lot of hard work, many hours at the physio and in the weight room. That’s what you work for, so you can play a lot of games. You come here to have fun, but especially, of course, to have a good basis to perform game after game,” Kimmich said in the press conference ahead of the final Champions League group stage match against Inter Milan (@iMiaSanMia).
