The Dortmund boss has spoken of the stress his side’s injury worries have caused him over the last few days and has played down Bayern Munich’s own fitness problems
Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp says “80 per cent of his grey” hair was caused by how his side’s injury crisis worsened ahead of Saturday’s clash with Bayern Munich.
The German giants saw Mats Hummels and Marcel Schmelzer pick up injuries on international duty to leave them without any of their first-choice defenders.
And Klopp has spoken of the grief that this week has caused him, while dismissing Bayern’s own injury worries, with Franck Ribery missing out thanks to a rib problem.
“I’ve picked up 80 per cent of my grey hairs this week,” the 46-year-old joked at a press conference.
“The situation is not great, especially when one is in such a phase with eight games left until Christmas. But we already had a little time to get used to the idea.
“Well, you have to say that every single team in this world would miss a Franck Ribery, no doubt about that.
“On the other hand, the replacement might be Mario Gotze, plus [Thomas] Muller and [Arjen] Robben on his side. Then they have [Mario] Mandzukic, Toni Kroos and so on and so forth. The problems Bayern have are bearable.
“Franck Ribery is an outstanding player who is going to be replaced by another outstanding player.”
Klopp was reluctant to discuss his plans for restructuring his line-up to compensate for the absences, instead imploring his team to give their all on the pitch in order to challenge Bayern on Saturday.
“I have complex considerations. But I did not intend you to communicate the ideas,” he noted.
“We will have to play an exceptional game to put the opponent in out of the way before problems arise.”