Ömer Toprak suffered a devastating injury blow just a week before the Bundesliga season starts. Toprak tore a ligament in his left thigh muscle, Bayer Leverkusen’s official website confirmed earlier today.
The Turkish international was forced off immediately after putting his side 2-1 up in their pre-season friendly against Italian side Hellas Verona. The 26-year-old was due to start his rehabilitation today.
Initial concerns proved to be right
Although manager Roger Schmidt's concern was evident, saying the injury “probably isn't a short term problem.” His thoughts were correct. As first feared, the injury was serious and, according to kicker’s information, the defender could miss the entire first half of the season through the injury sustained in his left thigh - if it is a worst case scenario.
This leaves Leverkusen’s centre-back position severely lacking with only summer signings Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Jonathan Tah the only natural centre-half options in the team at the moment. As well as Toprak, 19-year old Croatian Tin Jedvaj is currently sidelined with a thigh injury and is also looking likely to miss the start of the season.
Toprak played 29 times for die Werkself last season, the Turk was dominant in tackles and headed duels winning 51% and 67% respectively.
What impact will it have on club and country?
His injury means that he will miss vital games against Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, VfL Wolfsburg and Schalke 04 as well as the Rhein Derby against 1. FC Köln.
He will also miss a crucial part of Bayer’s Champions League campaign which is set to start on the August 18th - with the draw for their play-off tie on August 7th. Bayern, Wolfsburg and Gladbach are already in the hat for the group stage draw after they finished in the top three last season.
Also, he could miss up to seven matches for his national side including four European Championship qualifiers, most notably away to Czech Republic and at home to the Netherlands and Ukraine.