Bayern Munich players Corentin Tolisso and Rafinha both left the pitch early against Bayer Leverkusen due to injuries of varying seriousness.
Bayern Munich claimed their third win of the Bundesliga season on Saturday with an impressive 3-1 victory over a lackluster Bayer Leverkusen side. After going down a goal very early in the match to an unfortunate penalty, Die Roten rallied back to take a one goal lead over their opponents by the 20th minute.
James Rodriguez capped things off for the Bavarians just prior to the 90th minute, securing their solid win over Heiko Herrlich’s men.
Despite the convincing win, things weren’t all fun and games for Bayern Munich on Saturday. The Bavarians lost two players — Corentin Tolisso and Rafinha — to injury.
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Tolisso made his first competitive start under Niko Kovac, having returned to squad training later in the summer after helping France win the 2018 World Cup. The Frenchman was superb in the first half. He scored Bayern’s opener and put it an overall impressive shift from the center of the park.
Then, around the 40 minute mark, Coco entered a challenge with Leverkusen’s Kevin Volland and came out clutching his knee on the pitch. Although he was initially going to be stretchered off the pitch, he was able to get up and leave with the help of Bayern’s medical team and left the Allianz Arena on crutches.
According to Bayern’s official Twitter account, Tolisso suffered an ACL tear in his left knee and will be out for several months.
Rafinha’s injury, which came as a result of Karim Bellerabi’s horrendous, red-card-worthy challenge in the 79th minute, is not quite as serious as his French teammate’s. However, the Brazilian-German did suffer ankle ligament damage and will be out for several weeks.
Bayern Munich have now suffered three serious injuries in their first three Bundesliga games. Kingsley Coman was forced off in the Bavarians’ season opener and likely won’t return to action until at least January.
Though Rafinha should be back on the pitch before the new year, we likely won’t see Corentin Tolisso until the end of the ’18-19 season, if we see him at all this campaign.
Having just turned 24-years-old, Coco is no doubt devastated by this injury. He had a excellent debut season in Bavaria last season and was no doubt looking to establish himself as a first-team starter this go around.
Meanwhile, Bayern will be without a back-up full-back for the coming weeks now that Rafinha is out of the picture. Either David Alaba and Joshua Kimmich must be prepared to put in some serious minutes or Niko Kovac must be prepared to play someone out of position (e.g., Leon Goretzka, Jerome Boateng) or promote a young player from the reserve squad.