Bayer 04 Leverkusen head coach, Xabi Alonso, has revealed his doubts over the presence of Super Eagles star, Nathan Tella, for their fixture against Holstein Kiel, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 25-year-old versatile attacker has played 18 of Leverkusen’s 22 league games this season, scoring one goal and providing two assists.
Tella played 85 minutes last weekend in Leverkusen’s goalless draw against Bayern Munich, before he was replaced by Amine Adli, but he picked up a hip injury afterwards.
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The Bundesliga Champions travel to Kiel tomorrow to play relegation-threatened Holstein Kiel, and Alonso shared an update about Tella’s injury status.
“We’ll train now. We’ll see with Nathan [Tella], there are some doubts with him, but all others are okay [and expected to be available against Kiel tomorrow]. Tella? It’s not an injury, but discomfort. It has something to do with the hip. We need to see how he feels today. It’s not gone away, but it’s also not yet been decided whether he can play,” the Spaniard said in quotes revealed by Werkself Xtra.
Xabi Alonso: “We’ll train now. We’ll see with Nathan [Tella], there are some doubts with him, but all others are okay [and expected to be available against Kiel tomorrow].”
On Tella’s issues: “It’s not an injury, but discomfort. We need to see how he feels today. It’s not gone… pic.twitter.com/ocYivyMpkB
— WerkselfXtra (@bayer04Xtra) February 21, 2025
Die Werkself have been drawn against Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League, and their Sporting director, Simon Rolfes, is confident his side can put on a show against the six-time winners of the competition.
“We know that we have the quality to beat Bayern and [they] know it as well, but we still have great respect for them because they are a top team. I think the respect is there on both sides. That might not have been the case 10 years ago, but currently for sure. It was clear that we’d face a top opponent [with Bayern or Real Madrid]. Munich is a team we know well, but who also know us well.
“It’s a Round of 16 Matchup on a high level. I think we’ve shown in the duels over the last few years that we have quality, that Bayern historically of course have as well, but that we [also] are a team that is absolutely competitive and ready to play at this level and we want to show that in the Round of 16 of course. In the end, we know that these are top games, and that’s something we look forward to, we want that. It was our goal to reach the Round of 16 to play in these big games and to show and use our qualities there,” the 43-year-old revealed.
Leverkusen are currently second on the Bundesliga table, eight points behind league leaders, Bayern Munich, and five points above third-place Eintracht Frankfurt.