Marcel Schmelzer has joined Abdou Diallo in returning to training following a spell on the sidelines. "He started to train a bit with the team today," said Lucien Favre of the veteran, who has spent the last few weeks out of action with a knee injury, on Thursday.

Fellow defender Diallo returned to action on Monday and "has been in full team training since yesterday," said Favre, who will now have an almost-full squad at his disposal for the match in Mainz on Saturday. "All the players are available except for Schmelzer," he confirmed.

That means more selection headaches with only 18 places up for grabs in the squad. Favre, though, is relaxed: "We have a big squad. That means making choices sometimes. But we have another eight games ahead of us. That's a lot of matches, we'll see [what happens]."

The coach did not confirm at today's press conference whether super sub Paco Alcácer would start the match. Although the Spaniard has not been on international duty over the past fortnight and has completed every training session with his team-mates in Dortmund ("That was good for him"), Favre pointed out: "Paco has hardly played a full 90 minutes for two years. He's slowly getting fit, but it all takes time." (br)