After two weeks of extra holiday, the international players have joined Borussia Dortmund's training squad, including five new signings who took part in their first team-training session on Monday following two-day performance diagnostics. BVB fans were able to attend the public session.

"When I came out here and saw the crowd, I have to say it's unique in the Bundesliga. I hope I have a lot of wins to celebrate with the people here," said new signing Nico Schlotterbeck, adding: "All the newcomers feel good here. I know a few guys from the Germany team, I've played against some of them. They've welcomed me with open arms." Schlotterbeck presented himself to the Black & Yellow faithful for the first time, as did Sébastien Haller, Niklas Süle, Karim Adeyemi and Salih Özcan. A total of 1,500 BVB fans came to the public training session at the academy ground in Brackel. Every successful action was accompanied by loud cheers.

"It feels good, the time had definitely come," said BVB coach Edin Terzic regarding the expanded training group. "There is very little time left to prepare for the first competitive match. That's why it's good that the boys are back and we can train in a big group."

Giovanni Reyna took to the pitch with his teammates, but did not complete the entire session. "He has had a lot of setbacks in the past twelve months. We want to make sure he doesn't suffer another one now. We want him to have confidence in himself and his body again, to have fun playing football again," said Terzic, adding: "That's why we are being extra careful, we want him to stay fit for as long as possible."

The injured Donyell Malen and Emre Can both completed individual sessions in the morning. "We are confident that both of them will travel to the training camp and that we will be able to deploy them fully there," said Terzic.

Before heading to training camp, the coach wants to make the most of the remaining days in Dortmund to build a good foundation: ''We will work hard for eight days in Switzerland. The two friendly matches there will give us a chance to push ourselves and see where we stand. And then we will start again," said Terzic.

Christina Reinke

BVB-TV by 1&1: the live stream of training