Leogang day 6: Regeneration and team building

The weather has made it difficult for the 1899 entourage. After a sunny couple of days the heavens opened up. Yet temperatures remained warm, making for bad conditions for the turf in the Steinbergstadion. "We've had to fight a little with the weather, but in the next few days it should improve", said an optimistic head coach Ralf Rangnick.

On Monday the majority of the players swapped their footballs for bicycles for a regenerative bike ride, while the remaining injured players stayed behind to work at the training ground.

Still tired from the previous day's friendly match, the players arrived at their bikes just before half past nine. Hoffenheim veteran Heinz Seyfest had already planned out the cycle route. The players were quickly separated into groups, saddled up, put their helmets on and set off on their 45-minute return journey to Saalfelden.

At 10:30 the players were able to look forward to visiting a nearby spa for a much-needed recovery soak. But not all of the players could enjoy the relaxing pleasure; Marco Pezzaiuolo and Peter Zeidler - co-trainers - were working with Carlos Eduardo, Prince Tagoe, Isaac Vorsah and Demba Ba in the technical area.

Athletics trainer Christof Elser trained with Manuel Gulde and Matthias Jaissle. While Jaissle rounded off his training programme with some light jogging, Gulde and Ziedler did some light passing of the football. "It's not yet obvious when the recovering players will be able to join in with full training. Demba Ba still isn't in full training, so we have to see how he will react. We definitely won't rush them back. Matthias Jaissle is just getting back on his feet, whilst Manuel Gulde is doing much better and will probably join in full training this week", said Rangnick.

Rangnick was somewhat guarded as to when Carlos Eduardo, Prince Tagoe and Isaac Vorsah will be back: "Whether and when these three will join in depends much on their impressions during their individual schedules. Their injuries are monitored, and we are being cautious about throwing them back in too early."

During the afternoon the team then visited a mountain hut belonging to the Unterreiner family. Matthias Bauer chauffeured the would-be mountain climbers partly there, before the team took off on a 45-minute walk further into the mountains, where they remained until the evening.