Schalke’s Keeper Worries Grow: Schober Injured

Schalke, cur­rently sit­ting at the top of the Bun­desliga, have surged ahead to the peak of another, less pres­ti­gious table — the goal­keeper injury table. First choice keeper Manuel Neuer has yet to make an appear­ance this sea­son, hav­ing bro­ken his fifth metatarsal dur­ing a pre-season friendly against SpVgg Erken­schwick (cur­rently play­ing in the equiv­a­lent of Germany’s sixth tier). Thank­fully teams are pre­pared for these kind of even­tu­al­i­ties by keep­ing reserve keep­ers on hand. The hope is that in the absence of the usual no. 1, that the man who takes his place between the sticks won’t do more harm than good. That is the sit­u­a­tion Math­ias Schober, Hansa Rostock’s for­mer first choice goal­keeper, cur­rently finds him­self in at Schalke. He’s been doing a great job, too, con­ced­ing only once so far (against Torsten Frings and Bre­men) this Bun­desliga sea­son. I say Bun­desliga sea­son because the 4–0 thrash­ing by Atletico Madrid in the Cham­pi­ons League qual­i­fy­ing tie wasn’t a stel­lar per­for­mance, but it doesn’t seem to have impacted his domes­tic form.

Now Math­ias Schober is off to see team doc­tor Bernd Brex­en­dorf and his team of phys­io­ther­a­pists after pick­ing up the injury in train­ing. The diag­no­sis is not good. Schober will be out at least two to three weeks due to a torn left calf mus­cle. He will def­i­nitely miss this week’s clash against Revierderby rivals Dort­mund and the fol­low­ing weeks’ games against Frank­furt and Köln. At the absolute ear­li­est he might be avail­able to play Wolfs­burg on match­day 7. The prob­lem is Schober’s oppor­tu­nity to cement his posi­tion as Schalke’s new no. 1 will likely have passed by then because Manuel Neuer has already begun light train­ing this week. While it is unlikely that he will be declared fit in time for Saturday’s game, his return will almost cer­tainly coin­cide with Schober’s absence. Even an unfit Manuel Neuer should have lit­tle to worry when it comes to com­pet­ing with the third choice keeper for play­ing time. But who’s left to play goal this week (and pos­si­bly longer if Neuer’s recov­ery should suf­fer an unfor­tu­nate setback)?

Two 19-year olds are the only remain­ing fit first team goal­keep­ers at Fred Rutten’s dis­posal. The first is Mohamed Amsif, a German-born Moroc­can who only signed a pro­fes­sional con­tract ear­lier this May. The more likely choice, how­ever, is Chemnitz-born Ger­many Under-21 inter­na­tional Ralf Fährmann. Last year he started 28 games for Schalke 04 II, keep­ing a clean sheet 14 times. Now the level of com­pe­ti­tion he’ll be fac­ing is vastly greater than the Oberliga foes he faced, but the biggest chal­lenge will be stay­ing healthy.

What do you think, will Schalke be able to draw or defeat their rivals Dort­mund this week with an untested 19-year old in goal?

Tagged as: Atletico Madrid, Bernd Brexendorf, Borussia Dortmund, Bremen, Champions League, FC Schalke 04, Frankfurt, Köln, Manuel Neuer, Mathias Schober, Mohamed Amsif, Ralf Fährmann, Revierderby, Rostock, SpVgg Erkenschwick, Torsten Frings, VfL Wolfsburg