Managing just six minutes on her debut before being substituted off, Fridolina Rolfö could have asked for a happier start to her Bayern Munich career.
One of the first out of the door at Linköping after winning the Damallsvenskan title, Kungsbacka native Rolfö has somewhat flown under the radar in recent months, overshadowed by her strike partners for both club and country. But a determined young attacker, Rolfö was set to add another option to the Bavarians labouring attack – as well as continuing on as a vital member of the Swedish squad, adding to the spine of Pia Sundhage’s team.
With her Olympics cut short after fracturing a metatarsal in her right foot, Rolfö was forced to miss out on six league games as well as the Svenska Cupen final as she came back to full-fitness. Given a start in Sweden’s two friendlies in Spain last month, it’s clear that Sundhage still has a lot of faith in the young striker and with the recent news of Sofia Jakobsson’s ACL injury the onus will be on the likes of Rolfö to step up and emulate the Montpellier attacker’s work rate.
Blow to start off
After two strong performances in Spain, the attacker returned to Germany to join back-up with Munich before the team left for a winter training camp in Sevilla where she made her Munich bow in a friendly against WSL 1 side Arsenal. But her debut lasted little over five minutes when she took a whack to the top of her right foot and was unable to continue. Although currently unable to put weight on her right foot due to the pain, the Bayern doctors have confirmed that nothing is broken and Swedish national team doctor Houman Ebrahimi doesn’t think there will be long-term damage.
The injury does however come as a blow not just for Rolfö but for Thomas Wörle who brought in the Swedish international to add strength and depth to his squad and heat up competition for places. With the attacker out for an unknown amount of time Wörle sees his options reduced once again, however the match did give a chance for a number of returning players to get time on the pitch. Vanessa Bürki particularly keen to impress, as the long-serving Red bagged a game-winning brace after she came on late in the day, whilst Lena Lotzen saw her first minutes for over 500 days.
Following on from the injury, Rolfö has returned to Germany for further investigations.