Despite having a limited number of players available to him, Werder coach Thomas Schaaf called upon his remaining four healthy professionals, Frank Baumann, John Jairo Mosquera and Carlos Alberto, who had recovered from a cold, as well as goakeeper Nico Pellatz, to get in some game practice. Schaaf and U23 coach Thomas Wolter spontaneously decided to hold their training sessions together on Wednesday and set up a match - which coincidentally ended in a clear win for the team with Baumann, Mosquera and Alberto.
Away from the trainings match, the trio of Peter Niemeyer, Boubacar Sanogo and Ivan Klasnic served up a training session all of their own with jogging, sprinting and dribbling on the programme. For Sanogo, it was his first contact with a ball since his ankle injury: "It's not going so well so far. I'm still in some pain although I did get through the training session without painkillers
quite well. I'm not going to start getting frustrated right now and hope to see improvements from day to day", explained the Ivory Coast international as he cooled his foot after training.
Still not availabel for training are: Tim Wiese (muscular Problems), Patrick Owomoyela (ankle injury), Aaron Hunt (Knee injury), Pierre Wome (groin operation), Torsten Frings (knee injury), Sebastian Boenisch (knee operation) and Christian Vander (ankle injury).
By Thursday, in spite of the icy temperatures, the sight of Aaron Hunt back on the trainings pitch would have warmed many a Green-White heart. The striker kept his involvement reduced to some light ball exercises but said afterwards: "I was delighted to be back working with the ball again. I was able to sprint, to shott and most importantly I was able to do that without feeling any pain", explained Hunt.
The 21 year old is not quite ready yet to speculate on a possible return to full team training: "I haven't set a specific date but i hope to be able to partkae in the winter preparations without pain. Then we will see. It would be bad to try and do too much too soon", admitted the srtiker cautiously. The youngsters season has failed to even start thanks to a plague of injuries with groin and knee problems holding him back.
First choice goalkeeper Tim Wiese is also hoping to be back on the pitch soon: "I'd like to get back into training next week." Music to his coaches ears surely when his number one is so full of confidence.