Favre ponders Haaland debut

Borussia Dortmund boss Lucien Favre will make a late call on whether to hand Erling Haaland a Bundesliga debut at Augsburg this weekend.

Dortmund beat off interest from a host of heavyweight European clubs to land the 19-year-old striker last month, paying a release clause of €22.5million to Salzburg. Haaland netted 28 goals in 22 appearances for the Austrian champions this season but Favre conceded to concerns over his match fitness after missing the start of Dortmund's mid-season training camp.

"As I said, we'll see. Now, I can't say," Favre told reporters. "But he didn't train from December 10 until the end of December. At the beginning of our training camp in Marbella he didn't train, too. The time for the preparation was also really short. But yesterday he ran a lot and it was okay."

 

January 16, 2020

Favre might be tempted not to rush Haaland with club captain Marco Reus and Thorgan Hazard set to bolster his frontline, having returned from their respective muscular injuries.

"The injured players trained a lot. Marco Reus and Thorgan Hazard trained every day," Favre added. "They were every day here. We'll see if they can play. In terms of injury, Marcel Schmelzer can't play on Saturday, Tobias Raschl didn't train this week and Thomas Delaney can't play, too."

Dortmund sit fourth in an intriguingly poised Bundesliga table, three points behind champions Bayern Munich and seven shy of leaders RB Leipzig at the halfway stage.