Before the upcoming training camp in Walchsee, Austria, which is scheduled for July 18th to 27th, second division football club Hertha BSC played a friendly match against third division club Energie Cottbus on Tuesday evening. The match ended in a 2:2 draw after 90 minutes. But the dominant topic for the Berliners after the game was not the mediocre result, but rather the concern for star player Fabian Reese.
The winger had led Hertha BSC onto the field as captain during the away game in Lausitz. But after just 24 minutes, the working day was over for the best Hertha professional of the past season.
After a tackle by Cottbus professional Filip Kusic, the 26-year-old twisted his ankle and remained lying on the ground with a face contorted in pain and had to be treated. Reese had to leave the field with a heavily bandaged left ankle and was replaced by Gustav Christensen.
After the game, Hertha’s new head coach Christian Fiél was still dismayed when speaking to “rbb”: “Yes, it is the worst thing that has happened today. I hope that it is not too serious, but unfortunately I cannot say more than that.” Even on Wednesday morning, nothing was known about the exact severity of the injury.
Hertha BSC next plays against Nijmegen
With nine goals and 14 assists in 31 appearances, Fabian Reese was Hertha’s second-best scorer last season after top scorer Haris Tabakovic and is also considered a regular on the left wing under new coach Fiél. A longer forced break for the Kiel native would therefore be a painful blow for Hertha BSC.
On Tuesday evening, Reese initially wanted to continue playing, but then had to be substituted early due to suspected ligament damage.
Berlin coach Fiél added after the match: “With all due respect, we should have won 6-2 given the chances we had, but now it was only 2-2. That annoys me. But what was much worse on this day was Fabian Reese’s injury.”
Before the Cottbus match, Hertha BSC had won all three of their current preparation matches against Rot-Weiß Erfurt (4:0), SV Babelsberg (1:0) and FSV Zwickau (6:1). The next test match is scheduled against the Dutch club NEC Nijmegen (July 20th at 4:00 p.m.).
Source: www.sport.de
