Ilkay Gündogan, Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan could all play a part in Jürgen Klopp’s plans for the Bundesliga match at Cologne on Saturday (kick-off: 1530 CET) as the trio is set to return to the squad, just like Sven Bender and Sebastian Kehl.

The Dortmund coach, however, was eager to point out that expectations on the return of “the lads with the recognisable names” should not be too high, and he would also not confirm which of the three players is likely to feature on Saturday.

The team will have only one full training session ahead of the Cologne game, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looking very doubtful to take part in it. While Adrian Ramos returned to Dortmund on Thursday following two cameo appearances for Colombia, Aubameyang is only expected to return from international duty and his “round-the-world trip” on Friday afternoon.

Shinji Kagawa has been back in Dortmund since the start of the week. “It’s looking good. He suffered a slight concussion, but it’s not that serious,” said Klopp on the Japanese midfielder who completed the full training session on Wednesday. Mats Hummels and Erik Durm, however, will sit out training on Thursday after returning from Germany duty with a slight cold.

In other team news, Oliver Kirch is set to return to full training this weekend, and with Jakub Blaszczykowski and Nuri Sahin (running again) expected to get back to it soon as well, BVB’s injury situation is slowly easing, especially since the absence of Marcel Schmelzer (broken hand) is also only temporary.