Interview: Boris Vukcevic

Along with Isaac Vorsah, Demba Ba, Chinedu Obasi, Matthias Jaissle, Andreas Beck and Andreas Ibertsberger, the Brazilian Carlos Eduardo and captain Per Nilsson are also out of action. Beck and Ibertsberger are, however, scheduled to be back in training tomorrow. In order to get his team relaxed and ready for the important match against Nürnberg, Rangnick got the team involved in a bit of football tennis after their warm down exercises. On top of that, Boris Vukcevic, the birthday boy, was able to leave the training ground early to have a chat with achtzehn99.de. Here is what he had to say.

Boris, you're celebrating your 20th birthday today! Have your colleagues already wished you a Happy Birthday?

Of course. They've all congratulated me on turning 20. However, I'm not focussed on celebrating because I am already concentrating on the crucial match in Nürnberg, which really is important for us. It's critical we get the three points so that we can avoid being sucked into the relegation battle.

What plans do you have for today then?

It will most likely be a nice quiet evening spent with my family. My parents and my twin brother will be joining me for a relaxed and enjoyable evening meal.

In today's training session you had a slot for regenerative work. What exactly did you do during this period?

We really worked on our ball skills as well as taking some time individually to work with the coaches. Football tennis was part of the training as well and we finished the session off with a light run to warm down.

Let's take a quick look back at the game on Sunday. You were in the starting line-up again. Do you believe you made the most of the opportunity?

I can't answer that question. It all depends on how the manager judged my effort and performance. I am, however, always happy with an opportunity to prove myself from the start of the match and it fuels my determination to keep training hard. Really though I can't answer this question because my performance is not the most important thing, it's the performance of the whole team, that's the priority.