Schonlau: "Achieve our targets"

The captain was involved in the club’s training camp in Spain, even though he’s still not at 100%. After undergoing an operation to remove a cyst on his eye, he arrived in Sotogrande after the rest of the squad. Once there, the defender had to train individually as he continued recovering from his calf injury suffered at the end of 2023. ‘Bascho’ talked to us about his fitness and the team’s work at the training camp. Sebastian Schonlau spoke about…

...his recovery from injury: I started doing some running again at the end of the week, which was a good end to the training camp for me personally. It felt good to be back on the training ground again instead of the gym. I’m continuing to work my way back step-by-step and I’m making good progress. We’re currently really optimistic, however there is no advantage to declaring any specific dates. The next steps will see me start doing some jumping and then work with the ball. I have to be patient.

"I was really impressed by the team’s commitment and the intensity they worked at"

…how he’s dealt with being on the sidelines: It’s obviously been tough for me recently. I firstly injured my right calf and now my left one. The second injury could definitely have been connected to the first one. When I was at Paderborn, I missed five or six games at the start of my time there and then at the end of a season again, but never as many matches in a row as I have now, which is something I never want to repeat. I noticed during the training camp in particular how hard it is not to be involved with the team.

…the team’s work during the training camp: We have wanted to improve and achieve our targets since the first day of 2024 when we met back up for the first time at the Volkspark, that has been clear. The coach massively increased the workload at the training camp and we trained at a really high intensity. I was really impressed by the team’s commitment and the intensity they worked at. It was an exhausting time for everyone, but I could see that everybody had fun, even when things got lively on the pitch. It’s everything we wanted, and we needed that intensity during the training camp.