Upamecano in race for fitness ahead of FIFA World Club Cup

As quickly as Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga title celebrations have started, it’s already time for a brief break before the club regroups to start preparations for this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup in the United States. 

In addition, Bayern’s internationals will also have an international break for UEFA Nations League matches, World Cup qualifiers, and international friendlies at the beginning of June before Club World Cup prep starts.

It’s going to be an incredibly busy summer for the Bavarians both on and off the pitch, but they’ve recently received news of a good injury update to keep spirits high rolling into next month.

Dayot Upamecano is expected to be back fit for the Club World Cup. The French international has been out of action since the end of March due to an injury to his left knee that he sustained after that month’s international break with France, playing in their UEFA Nations League quarterfinal matches against Croatia. 

The center back has not played for Bayern since the 1-1 draw vs. Union Berlin in the Bundesliga on March 25th, for which he had only just come back from a slight hip problem that kept him out of action for at least one match.

The injury to Upamecano came at an increasingly unfortunate time for Bayern, seeing as he missed both legs in the Champions League quarterfinals against Inter, but thankfully, they did not lose any of the Bundesliga matches that he missed en route to clinching the title.

Vincent Kompany was lucky to have the depth of Eric Dier, Kim Min-jae, and Josip Stanišić to alternate at center back in the long absence of Upamecano. It was also a tough blow to lose the Frenchmen when they did, as they had also lost Alphonso Davies and Jamal Musiala to long-term injuries.

Now, though, Kompany will be delighted at the fact that he’ll have Upamecano back for the Club World Cup, especially since Dier is joining AS Monaco. Bayern is reportedly close to bringing in Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen, too, and the club has left the door open for Kim to leave this summer, so the back line could already look quite different come the middle of June.