New injuries fuel tedesco’s desire for transfer

Pressure on christian heidel and FC schalke 04 grows in final transfer spurt.

With three injuries to current regulars, the precarious personnel situation at the revierclub worsened, so that even domenico tedesco gave up his public restraint at least a bit. "We have only two central defenders left," the konigsblauen coach stated after the hard-fought 2:2 at hertha BSC, humiliated. And added with a view to the hoped-for change activities after a short break: "if we get one, then I’m happy."

Until the transfer window closes – in most european leagues on the 31st of the month. January – has the under pressure manager heidel now still time to solve the most pressing problems. In the center of defense, tedesco has only salif sane, who did not leave the safest impression against berlin, and matija nastasi after the departure of naldo? To the verfugung. Defensive all-rounder benjamin stambouli suffered a severe cheekbone fracture in a collision with hertha’s arne maier and will be absent until the end of february.

But the konigsblauen need to act not only in the central defensive area, but also in the attack. Breel emobolo and guido burgstaller out for a long time yet. Auben player alessandro schopf tore his auben ligament and suffered a capsule injury in his left knee after a hard foul by berlin defender karim rekik. With the 24-year-old schopf schalke expects an absence of eight to ten weeks.

"I didn’t mean to hurt him," rekik emphasized, apologizing once again to his opponent via social networks. "My ball contact was bad, then he was faster than me, and i got on his fub. I am very sorry."After the two substitutions in the first half, stalwart steven skrzybski had to go off with a torn muscle in his right thigh a quarter of an hour before the end. He will also be absent for the next two weeks, schalke 04 announced on saturday.

This week, sporting director axel schuster had caused some head-scratching with his statement that the club was "not in an emergency situation" in terms of personnel. But even before the recent injuries, schalke was considered to be interested in nikola kalinic from atletico madrid. According to a report in the "bild" newspaper (saturday), the konigsblauen are said to be aiming for a loan with an option to buy and have made an offer to that effect for the 31-year-old croatian. "I haven’t met him," heidel told eurosport before kickoff in berlin. "We will not comment on names, you should wait until we announce something."