High-flying Borussia Dortmund must do without Marco Reus for the rest of 2015 as the Germany winger has a groin injury.
Reus limped off just before half-time in Sunday’s 4-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt and although an MRI scan has revealed there is no tear, he will miss Wednesday’s German Cup third-round tie at Augsburg and Saturday’s league match at Cologne.
It’s the third time this calendar year that the 26-year-old has been out with a groin injury having missed a couple of weeks of the season back in April and again in November.
“It’s a real shame as he was injury-free and in really good shape,” lamented Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel.
Dortmund are second only to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga this season and have set a club record of seven wins and a draw from their eight home games and have been beaten just twice in Germany’s top flight.
Their tally of 38 points would be enough to put them top of the English, Spanish and Italian leagues.
Meanwhile Reus’s team-mate Neven Subotic has said he will use the last two games of the year to ‘attack’ and show Tuchel that he deserves a place in the starting side.
The Serbia international is expected to start against Augsburg for a place in the German Cup’s quarter-finals.
Subotic, who was part of the title-winning sides in 2011 and 2012, has made just two league starts this season under Tuchel, who prefers Greece international Sokratis and Mats Hummels as his centre-back pairing.