Bayern confirm Ribery surgery

Bayern Munich have revealed that Franck Ribery will miss at least the next week after undergoing an operation on Thursday.

The 30-year-old midfielder made his only competitive appearance of the year on Sunday as Bayern cruised to a 5-0 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt, netting his side’s second goal.

Ribery – who had been struggling with a muscular injury – had surgery on a trapped nerve in his gluteal muscles on Thursday.

Bayern say he will remain at the clinic of club doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt for the time being and a club spokesman confirmed the surgery.

“Franck is suffering from compartment syndrome. We will know more after he’s undergone further tests on Sunday,” the club said.

Bayern manager Pep Guardiola hopes Ribery “will return to training as soon as possible”.
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The Bundesliga table-toppers will be heavy favourites to win at Nuremberg on Saturday, but the hosts have won their last two league matches – their only triumphs of the season.

And Guardiola is expecting a tough test at the Grundig Stadion.

“Bayern have a lot of derby matches – against Stuttgart, Dortmund, Augsburg. They’re always special,” he said.

“They leave their opponents little time to think. We have to be very aggressive and run quickly with the ball.

“We’ll have to be very aggressive against Nuremberg. We’re going to need to work hard.

“Nuremberg coach (Gert) Verbeek is Dutch so they won’t just sit back and defend. They’ll try to attack whenever they can.”

Guardiola revealed that midfield pair Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez are still rated doubtful, but that the former had trained without pain this week.