"I really missed it. It was a serious injury, but I’m glad to be back now," said Nico Schlotterbeck, after completing his first piece of action in nearly three months on Saturday.
The defender had finally returned from an ankle injury he sustained at the World Cup with Germany and had a stormer, commanding BVB's backline with the same authority and urgency that propelled him among the best centre-backs last season.
Starting in his usual position on the left side of a three-man defense, Schlotterbeck was a towering presence for Dortmund, never to shy away from a tackle or throw his body on the line whenever Paderborn looked to create something from his side of the pitch.
He made a team-high of six clearances, shared with Waldemar Anton. But while Anton played the full game, Schlotterbeck managed it in 77 minutes of action. It once again highlights his exceptional reading of incoming dangers, one of the most decorated facets of his game.
There were times when he seemed to lack pace in one-on-one duels, but made up for that with his physicality and played a crucial role in winning back possession too: he won 10 of his 11 attempted ground duels, having hounded Paderborn players for the ball like a hungry hyena hounding a gazelle.
Having returned to training a few days prior to the clash, Schlotterbeck resumed individual training at first before joining the rest of the squad. Yet, he revealed that head coach Niko Kovac asked him about his fitness a day before the match and made a decision based on his own assessment.
"The coach asked me yesterday if I felt ready to go. I gave him the thumbs up, and that's when I knew I’d be playing. "
For the fans inside the stadium and those watching him from around the world, it was truly a welcome sight to see one of our best players back in the XI. And to see him hit the throttle right from the off? That was the icing on the cake!
Who'd say that this is a player who had been sidelined with an injury for nearly three months? someone who missed the entirety of their preseason campaign and all their five official games of the new season before this one?
Schlotterbeck didn't miss a beat here, reminding everyone of his formidable talents and why he's widely considered among the most valuable centre-backs in the world today.
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