Christian Gentner is doing well! The statement from the VfB captain is indeed all the more convincing, when you see how relaxed and positive the VfB captain is following the facial injuries he incurred during the home game against VfL Wolfsburg on September 16th and the two weeks which have since passed. „Today I was given permission to begin sporting participation again,“ explained the 32 year old on Wednesday. The midfielder will initially get things going with an individual programme. A plan for his return to full team action has not been made as yet. „We’ll have to wait and see how the reaction to effort in training is. First of all we need to get my circulatory system back up to speed and increase my pulse. I’m not putting myself under any pressure and there is none from the club either,” commented Christian Gentner.
The midfield man, who has some 325 Bundesliga under his belt – 226 of those for VfB – has now taken his next step on the road to recovery. Three days after incurring the injury, ‘Gente’ underwent surgery for the first time, and then had a second operation ten days after the hefty clash with the opposition goalkeeper. Now the damaged bones must be given the time to grow back together again. "It relatively quickly became clear that there would be no lasting damage. Luckily I got off quite lightly," noted the playmaker.
"Thanks to everyone who thought of me"
On the day after the match, the VfB captain viewed the pictures of the clash which led to the injuries. For the damage done, which by now little can be seen, the 32 year old doesn’t hold any grudge or place any blame on VfL Wolfsburg keeper Koen Casteels. „It was simply a very unfortunate collision. There was nothing intentional whatsoever. Koen made contact with me immediately afterwards and wished me a speedy recovery. We’ve been in contact a number of times since then,” continued Gentner.
Not only the VfL keeper, but also his own team mates, who donned „Get well soon, Gente“ t-shirts in warming up for the following game, sent their well wishes to Christian Gentner. Additionally, thousands of VfB and football fans used the club’s social media channels to send their best wishes to the VfB captain, who subsequently received a message from referee Guido Winkmann. „He got in touch with me to apologise for misinterpreting the situation. However, I think things like that can happen,“ said the 32 year old, adding: „Many thanks to everyone who thought of me. That really helped.“
Although the captain will not be able to help his team on the pitch for the foreseeable future, Christian Gentner intends to remain as close to the rest of the Cannstatt Boys as possible. ‘Gente’ plans to go through his individual programme parallel to the team training sessions and hopes to be in the Mercedes-Benz Arena to watch the next home game on Friday, October 13th.