Borussia Dortmund confirm Marcel Sabitzer’s injury layoff, Niko Kovac addresses contract rumours

Borussia Dortmund’s latest league defeat leaves die Schwarzgelben a full ten points behind the final Champions League place in the Bundesliga table. Whether or not German football’s second wealthiest and largest club will get European football at all next season lies in doubt. Regarding the current ongoing 2024/25 UCL campaign, there was more bad news on Sunday. 

Midfielder Marcel Sabitzer – subbed off early in Saturday evening’s defeat – will miss at least a month with his injury incurred. Dortmund relayed Sabitzer’s downtime on Sunday without providing a specific diagnosis. It will be the case that the Austrian international – a regular in head coach Niko Kovac’s lineup in recent weeks – cannot be called upon for the two Champions League ties against Barcelona.

Kovac’s own mood yesterday obviously didn’t deviate much from his harsh words after last week’s league defeat to Augsburg. At the post match press conference, Kovac called the fourth league defeat under his watch “a total disaster”. The 53-year-old also put in an appearance on ZDF Sportschau this weekend.

The question of whether his contract contained an automatic termination clause in the event Dortmund fail to qualify for the UCL was posed. Kovac strongly denied this rumor that a multi-million severance agreement was built into his deal. 

“People speculate,” Kovac answered. “Perhaps I should publish the contract openly. There’s nothing like that in it.“

GGFN | Peter Weis