ontd_football | Phantom Per (Reply)

One still could feel the disappointment about the own performance after the 0:2 home-defeat of the Green-Whites against Mainz. During the training of the Werder pros there at least was something positive from the team's view: Per Mertesacker and Claudio Pizarro were not yet training with the team, but both were standing for the first time again on the pitch on Sunday and trained together with their fitness coach Yann-Benjamin Kugel simultaneously to their team-mates. An assignment for the next match against Hannover on Tuesday, 21st September 2010 still is too early for both of them.

"I have not been to training for ten days, I can feel that. Now I have to wait if there are any reactions concerning the exposure and strictly do that what the doctors say", so Mertesacker, who trained for the first time with a custom made facial mask. "Of course it's annoying, if it weren't, everybody would play with a mask", jokes the national player. "However, I can train with the Green-Whites without any problems and now we are going to arrange a few things and then keep working on the running area. An assignment on Tuesday is still rather unlikely", explains Mertesacker, who suffered a fracture of the eye socket and maxillary sinus during the match against Azerbaijan with the national team.

Also Claudio Pizarro expects himself not to be fit enough to have an assignment against the Lower Saxons. After his rupture of a muscle fibre the Peruvian is "just three days in training, that still is too early". After the unit on the pitch, where he for the first time was allowed to kick a ball, Pizarro expects a comeback in the North-Derby against the HSV on Saturday, 25th September 2010.