The BVB contingent grew on Friday evening (local time) as Achraf Hakimi, who is on loan from Real Madrid for two seasons, checked into the team hotel. The Moroccan, along with Marco Reus and Lukasz Piszczek, was granted a few extra vacation days after participating in the World Cup group stages and all three are now with the squad in the USA.

The trio were obviously not included in the squad for the 1-0 friendly victory over Manchester City that evening, and will instead train individually in the next few days before being gradually reintegrated into team training. Their return means that only Roman Bürki, Thomas Delaney, Raphael Guerreiro, Manuel Akanji and Shinji Kagawa remain on vacation after their exploits in Russia. They will only return to the team after the USA Tour, which finishes next Thursday.

In other news, André Schürrle could soon be set for a transfer. "We've given him permission to hold talks with another club," explained Sporting Director Michael Zorc.

The team will fly to Charlotte, the next stop on their USA Tour, at 10:00 CET (local time). Upon landing in North Carolina after three hours in the air, they will head to various marketing and PR appointments before training at the Bank of America Stadium at 18:00 (local time).

Due to the time difference, the most up-to-date information and news from the USA will continue to be published on our Facebook page or on our Twitter account. (br)

Achraf Hakimi joins