Ribery in Bayern squad for Gladbach clash

Pep Guardiola has included Franck Ribery in his squad for Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga match away against Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday.

The former France international last featured for Bayern in the Champions League win over Shakhtar Donetsk back in March and has since been out of action due to an ankle problem.

Ribery recently resumed training and Guardiola has deemed him fit enough to add him to his squad for this weekend’s encounter.

“The most important thing is that Franck is pain free,” the Bayern coach said at a news conference.

“Ribery laughed all the time on Thursday during training. That is the greatest gift for me as a coach.

“Of course it will take some time until he is 100 per cent fit again after seven months on the sidelines due to injury.”

Bayern were initially expected not to rush the 32-year-old back into action after his lengthy absence, but they fast-forwarded his comeback after Douglas Costa and Arjen Robben were both ruled out of Saturday’s trip to Gladbach with muscular problems.

Furthermore, the reigning Bundesliga champions will be without David Alaba (ankle), Thiago Alcantara (knee), Juan Bernat (groin) and Mario Gotze (adductor).