„Things could be better", Marcel Schmelzer said on Friday in Marbella. The team captain has to sit out the training sessions at the training camp due to a muscle injury in his calf just when he least wants to.

It is still unclear how long Schmelzer will be out and cannot train. Schmelzer said: "it will take a few days". After they return to Dortmund on Tuesday they will "be able to look at the injury in more detail" so they can tell "how long he will really have to be on the sidelines".

The left back has had some serious thoughts "about how something like that could happen in the first training session?" And: "it is frustrating not to be able to take part in all the preparations." Looking forward to February, "where we won't be playing three games a week, we will be training a lot and where we can find ourselves as a team, this would have been very important." However, now Schmelzer just has to be patient. He knows: "injuries are part and parcel of football. I will just have to get through this." (br)

The detailed daily report from Marbella will follow late this evening