Ito injury adds to Bayern’s defensive woes

MUNICH: Bayern Munich´s defensive injury crisis deepened on Sunday as the Bundesliga leaders announced Hiroki Ito had fractured his metatarsal for a second time this season.

The 25-year-old Japanese international broke the metatarsal in his right foot in Saturday´s 3-2 win over St Pauli.

Bayern on Sunday said Ito had “suffered a recurrence of a fracture in his right metatarsal”. Ito, who joined from Stuttgart last summer, missed the first half of the season with the same injury, which required two operations.

Ito joins centre-back Dayot Upamecano and wing-back Alphonso Davies on the injured list, with the trio all expected to miss the remainder of the season.

Davies tore his ACL while on international duty with Canada while Upamecano is expected back in May at the earliest with a knee injury.

Bayern are also awaiting the return of captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who injured his calf in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 clash with Bayer Leverkusen.

Neuer was set to return in March but his comeback has been delayed after a setback in his recovery.

“After the injuries to Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano, we´ve now lost a third defender in a short space of time,” sporting director Max Eberl said in a statement. “We will now pool our forces even more to continue pursuing our goals.”

Bayern´s remaining centre-backs are England veteran Eric Dier and South Korean Min-jae Kim, the latter who missed a match in March with an Achilles problem.

Bayern presently top the Bundesliga standings with a six-point lead over defending champions Bayer Leverkusen. The German giants are through to the quarter finals of the Champions League where they face Inter Milan, with the first match in Munich on April 8th. This season´s Champions League final will be held at Bayern´s Allianz Arena home.