Franck Ribery could face a race against time to be fit for the first leg of Bayern Munich's Champions League tie with Arsenal after undergoing buttock surgery
Franck Ribery
Berlin: France's Franck Ribery has undergone surgery for bruised buttocks with Bayern Munich hoping he will be fit for their Champions League clash at Arsenal in less than a fortnight.
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Franck Ribery
"Hopefully, he can play in London," said Bayern coach Pep Guardiola with defending champions Bayern travelling to Arsenal for the last 16, first-leg clash on February 19. "Franck is important, I hope he can train as soon as possible and we are waiting on him."
Bayern's media director Markus Hoerwick said the 30-year-old had taken a "knock to the buttocks" and went under the knife on Thursday, ruling him out of Saturday's league match at Nuremberg with Bayern 13 points clear.
Neither Hoerwick, nor Guardiola could answer how Ribery picked up the injury, but the winger will stay in a Munich clinic over the weekend and will be examined again on Monday.
"Then we will know then if he can return to the team or will be out for longer," added Hoerwick.
There was some good news for Guardiola with Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger having returned to training this week after a knee injury.
"It's the best news," said Guardiola who said Schweinsteiger just needs to "play, play, play" to get his conditioning up.
Bayern's opponents Nuremberg have climbed out of the relegation places by winning their last two games, but despite the 36-point gap between the teams in the league, the European champions will travel to Franconia with respect.
"We have only beaten them once in the last few years, it's a derby and it's special," said Guardiola, whose side are on a 44-match unbeaten run, dating back to October 2012 and have won all of their last 11 league matches.
"They are hard games to win, you see that in the history. "They have a good pressing game and counter-attack well. "We have to be aggressive, run hard and play the ball quickly."
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