Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Brandt may be postponed for the Bayern Munich clash

Borussia Dortmund won 3-0 over Croatian Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League on Wednesday night, with goals from Jamie Gittens, Ramy Bensebaini and Serhou Guirassy extending their points tally to 12 in this year’s repeat of the competition. Dortmund’s victory will go a long way towards the club securing a knockout round.

Unfortunately for Die Schwarzgelbenyesterday’s victory did not come without a cost. German international Julian Brandt came off the pitch at half-time during the match in the Croatian capital, which could signal that the player has suffered some sort of injury.

Initially, the substitution could have been chalked up to two factors; a rather quiet first half from Brandt, and the fact that Dortmund have Bayern Munich waiting for them this weekend in the Bundesliga. Brandt has played a very high number of minutes for Dortmund this season (almost 1500 minutes), which will undoubtedly lead to fatigue and a drop in form.

The reality of the situation only became apparently after the match as Brandt told Sky reporters that “it will be difficult” for him to play against Bayern this weekend. Sporting director Sebastian Kehl also fueled injury speculation by sharing his skepticism about Brandt’s chances:

“I’m very skeptical. If someone leaves the pitch before the end of the half, it’s not a good sign. It’s something muscular.”

– Sebastian Kehl

The unfortunate nature of this injury, especially ahead of such a massive game for Dortmund in the Bundesliga, cannot be overstated. Although Brandt’s form has seen ups and downs this season, he is still regarded as the creative focal point of this Dortmund team and will be sorely missed on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see how Dortmund head coach Nuri Şahin reacts to this new development. The club is fortunate that so many players have managed to return to training (at least) ahead of the game against Bayern, as Şahin now has a few options to choose from that will help put together a solid lineup.

On the one hand, Dortmund could perhaps scrap the 10 from the lineup altogether and play a front two of Maximilian Beier and Serhou Guirassy. Şahin has dealt with this in the past to mixed effect, but with Beier seemingly coming into his own in Dortmund over the last few games, it might be worth the risk to give this another shot.

Şahin’s other option is to replace Brandt in the lineup with Gio Reyna, giving the U.S. international the ultimate opportunity to show his ability to the current Dortmund squad. The only concern here would be that he has just returned from injury himself and has only come on as a substitute in both the match against Dinamo Zagreb, as well Die Schwarzgelbens 4-0 win over Freiburg last weekend.

The upcoming match against Bayern could prove to be a major turning point for Dortmund’s season. It is crucial that Şahin gets whatever he calls in terms of replacing Brandt properly, especially if there is any hope for Dortmund to come within touching distance of a real title run this season.