Podolski shakes off injury

By: Angela | April 2nd, 2008

Fit again. Lukas Podolski looked to be a doubt ahead of the Bayern clash against Getafe on Thursday, but the boy has bounced back and has shaken off an ankle injury. He will be making the start against Getafe in place of Miroslav Klose

“Lukas has fought his way up in recent games and has shown a good presence when he has come on,” said Hitzfeld.

I am still really unsure of this. I have a lot of love for Lukas and his potential, but his distraction factor and his ability to get sidetracked are a huge factor in part of the many reasons that I think Klose is the better option. I do think he deserves an opportunity, but we’ll have to see how it plays out.

Also coming back into the line up is Martin Demichelis. Demichelis had taken a hard knock during the International games so he sat out last week to recover. He will be back in defense tomorrow. What did he have to say about Getafe?

“They will not be coming to Munich just to try and compete - they will want to go through.

“Getafe have nothing to lose. It is not going to be easy, but we have a lot of self-confidence and we have got to show what we are capable of on the field.”

The only concern for Hitzfeld at the moment, is my favorite, Mark van Bommel. He is struggling with a virus that caused him to sit out practice Tuesday. He still stopped by to see the team, but couldn’t participate. If he is not well enough tomorrow, Andreas Ottl will start in his place.

Switching gears, Hitzfeld has told Willy Sagnol that he needs to recover before he will see regular playing time. We all know how Willy feels about sitting on the bench, but when he’s come back into the line up, he’s suffered from back pains and numerous other minor injuries that keep him from being up to par. Hitzfeld has said he needs to be patient and that they have to work with him “intensely” to get him back up to his team-mates level… ouch. I was unaware that he’s only made four appearances this season in the Bundesliga, but that’s probably becuase I haven’t missed him. Which is a shame because I use to think he was pretty great.