Gotze to be left out of Dortmund friendly

Mario Gotze will not be risked in Borussia Dortmund’s first pre-season friendly on Tuesday, coach Peter Bosz has confirmed.

Gotze has returned to training after recovering from a metabolic disorder that has kept the 25-year-old out of action since February.

Dortmund are preparing to get their pre-season campaign under way against Rot-Weiss Essen but Gotze will not be considered for selection, Bosz said, as he readied himself to take charge of Dortmund for the first time.

“Mario was ill for a long time and didn’t train for five months,” Bosz said. “I’m not going to bring him in yet, it’s too early. You have to be careful with these things.”

 

Back on the pitch  @aubameyang97 @lukaszpiszczek_lp26 @andreschuerrle

A post shared by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀MARIO GÖTZE (@gotzemario) on Jul 9, 2017 at 5:00am PDT

After facing Rot-Weiss Essen, Dortmund will head out to Asia to play games against Urawa Reds and AC Milan and Dortmund’s director of football Michael Zorc believes Gotze’s return to action will not be too far away.

“We’re very happy that Mario is back with us,” said Zorc. “The first impressions are great; his scores look very good.

“We shouldn’t expect too much, too soon. It was a tough time for him, but the first impressions have been great. We’re hopeful for the coming months.”

Dortmund will be without Raphael Guerreiro for up to four months due to the left-back requiring surgery on a broken foot sustained at the Confederations Cup and Zorc hit out at the Portuguese FA over their handling of the situation.

“The injury hits us hard. Raphael brings a lot of quality to the team,” Zorc said. “We were surprised when we conducted our own examinations and took a close look.

“The results that we obtained were completely different from the statements that we received from the Portuguese medical team. It was so clear that he would need to have surgery.”