Two days before the home game against FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday (kick-off 15:30 CET), BVB coach Marco Rose still can't say which players are available. "We still have some question marks, but we're trying to turn those into exclamation marks by Saturday," said BVB coach Marco Rose regarding the injured players.    

A fortnight ago, some of BVB's players left for international duty, but they haven't all come back unscathed. Raphael Guerreiro and Youssoufa Moukoko both picked up muscle injuries shortly after leaving and definitely won't be available for Saturday's game, with the same going for Mahmoud Dahoud.  

Thomas Meunier still has problems with his toe and had to skip training this week too. Manuel Akanji however trained with the team again on Wednesday. "It looks good for Saturday. We hope we'll be able to confirm that in training today or tomorrow," said Rose about the centre-back. Thorgan Hazard has also returned to training. "We'll have to wait and see what the feedback is like today." According to Rose, striker Erling Haaland is in "integrative training," but it's not yet certain whether he can play on Saturday. "We'll try everything. Erling is desperate to play, but time is running out."      

"Our game changes when Erling doesn't play. But we have been able to win Champions League and Bundesliga games without him," said Rose in reference to the games against Sporting and Augsburg, where Haaland wasn't involved. "We were able to deal with the setback. However, it's important for us to have him back because he offers a lot to us and, most importantly, he scores goals. The most important thing for Erling is helping the team. We have to explore what's possible."     

Opponents Mainz travel to Dortmund ninth in the table, with a balanced record of three wins, one draw, and three defeats. The side from Rhine-Hesse have only scored seven goals, but they have also only conceded five. Together with Freiburg, that is the lowest tally this season. The FSV coach is Bo Svensson, someone Marco Rose played together with in Mainz. "We still keep in contact with each other. We're friends," said the BVB coach. "I don't begrudge the success he's had in Mainz. He's doing a great job there." Mainz primarily play results-oriented football, but successfully. "That means they've got a stable defence, who are really solid and incredibly uncomfortable to play against. It's difficult to create chances and score goals against them. They all work hard together as a unit to recover the ball, and they change it over extremely quickly. They don't need many chances to score goals."         

Tickets are still available for the game against Mainz. Click here to visit the online ticket shop.
Christina Reinke

BVB-TV by 1&1: The press conference before the game against Mainz