While Bayer is preparing for the game at Atletico Madrid, managing director Simon Rolfes is working on the signing of a replacement for striker Martin Terrier, who had surgery on his torn Achilles tendon on Monday.
The boss sent a substitute. Before the away games in the European Cup, Simon Rolfes usually answers journalists’ questions during the final training session in Leverkusen. Then the 42-year-old sorts out the current topics surrounding Bayer 04. But on Monday, the championship manager was absent from the last session on German soil before Bayer’s trip to the Atletico game in Madrid.
Rolfes had a good reason for his absence. After all, the personnel situation has worsened with the second long-term injury after Jeanuel Belocian (cruciate ligament rupture) due to Martin Terrier’s Achilles tendon rupture in the 3-1 victory against Gladbach.
Thomas Eichin, who took over Rolfes’ job in the small media round on Monday, did not want to deny that this is the case. First, Eichin referred to the distribution of tasks of the duo. “Simon is Managing Director of Sports, I am Director, taking care of the day-to-day business, so that Simon can fly around the world and make appointments, see everything,” said the Director of Licenses, adding with regard to a replacement for Terrier: ‘Let yourself be surprised – Simon is certainly not in the Neptune spa enjoying a wellness treatment.’
Because the loss of Terriers hurts Bayer, even though the French attacker had not really shown his qualities yet. “Besides Amine Adli, he is another type of player who is currently not available to us,” emphasized Eichin. Terriers, Adli and the 27-year-old are “guys who give us a bit of depth, take some pressure off us. This is a bitter loss.”
Which is why Bayer is trying to find an immediate replacement. Rolfes was missing when the Bayer delegation set off for Madrid from Cologne-Bonn Airport. Obviously to work elsewhere to strengthen the squad. After Terrier’s loss, Bayer’s efforts are in overdrive.
