Eight Borussia Dortmund youngsters called up to first team squad ahead of Bundesliga restart

Borussia Dortmund have called up eight youngsters to the first team squad ahead of next week’s Bundesliga restart.

Borussia Dortmund have been busy preparing for next weekend’s local derby against rivals Schalke 04. And eight players from the U19s and U23s have joined Lucien Favre’s training group which now includes over 30 players.

The reason for this is that the DFL has advised teams to have sufficiently large squads. So in the event some members of the first team test positive for coronavirus, U19s and U23s players can replace them in the squads.

According to Ruhr Nachrichten, the players to have been called up to the Borussia Dortmund first-team squad are defenders Marco Rente, Lars Bünning and Dominik Wanner, midfielders Taylan Duman and Marco Hober, forwards Chris Führich and Steffen Tigges (who were also involved in the team’s January training camp), as well as U-19s captain Alaa Bakir. In addition, goalkeepers Luca Unbehaun and Eric Oelschlägel are also staying fit in case of emergencies.

The Borussia Dortmund squad arrived at the l’Arrivée hotel last night, where they will quarantine ahead of next weekend’s Bundesliga restart.

A number of key first team players missed team training on Saturday, including Axel Witsel, Emre Can, Marco Reus, Dan Axel Zagadou, Achraf Hakimi, Mario Götze and Manuel Akanji. Reus and Zagadou have already been ruled out of next weekend’s derby, while Witsel, Can and Hakimi are all injury doubts.

Borussia Dortmund are currently in second place in the Bundesliga standings, four points behind league leaders Bayern Munich, with nine games still to be played.