Manuel Neuer’s devastating ski injury after the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup threw a giant wrench into the Bayern Munich veteran’s plans for this season. Now 37, such an injury could easily define, derail, or end a career. But the star German international is determined not to let that happen.
In a report from Az’s Maximilian Koch, Neuer’s recovery from a broken leg is said to be proceeding on schedule:
Everything is going according to plan with [Manuel Neuer]’s rehab: The goalkeeper is often on the ergometer, and he wants to train with the team to start preparing for the new season. Daily, positive exchange with Tuchel on Säbener Straße.
Neuer’s whole world at Bayern has changed, or rather been upended, since he was last in the lineup. His close friend and goalkeeper’s coach Toni Tapalovic was dismissed in January in another excising of the old guard. Then manager Julian Nagelsmann himself was let go in March, not long after Nagelsmann’s preferred keeper’s coach Michael Rechner was brought in from Hoffenheim. That’s not to mention Gladbach’s Yann Sommer was purchased in the January transfer window and is every bit himself a star worthy of the #1 jersey.
Neuer will need to re-establish rapport with the new staff quickly as he begins his long road back to the training pitch. How soon he’ll be able to return, and how that affects the fates of Sommer, backup Sven Ulreich, and the on-loan Alexander Nübel, will be topics of intense interest this summer.