Kimmich out till 2022 due to Covid-19

BERLIN • Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann said on Friday that he expects Joshua Kimmich to make a full recovery from Covid-19, but the midfielder has been warned the path to full fitness may be long.

Kimmich is not expected to play again until next month as he recovers from lung damage caused by the coronavirus after the 26-year-old, who is unvaccinated, tested positive last month.

In a statement, he has said he "can't wait" to play and train again, but his enforced spell on the sidelines must continue as he has "slight infiltrations in my lungs".

On Friday, Nagelsmann made it clear that Kimmich will miss Bayern's last three Bundesliga games of this year against Mainz, Stuttgart and Wolfsburg but only as a precautionary measure.

"I'm not at all worried because the infiltrations are not dramatic," he said. "The break is a safety measure and no damage of consequence is to be expected."

Bayern's Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting also has infiltrations of the lungs after testing positive.

Nagelsmann said both players will do light exercise over the next 10 days, with their health closely monitored, "then the infiltrations should be gone" and their training can be increased.

Kimmich has not played since Nov 6, after which he tested positive and only came out of house quarantine this week.

"It annoys him that he is absent," Nagelsmann revealed. "He's one of the most ambitious players we have. He's someone who plays frequently and has ants in his pants now."

Kimmich sparked a heated vaccination debate in October when he revealed that he had declined a vaccine due to "personal concerns".

While the German champions, who are currently top of the table on 34 points, hope Kimmich and Choupo-Moting make full and speedy recoveries, other Bundesliga footballers have not been so fortunate.

One example is Freiburg midfielder Jonathan Schmid, who has not played since August and is still rebuilding his fitness more than three months later.

Kimmich has been warned not to rush his recovery.

"It will be a rocky road to a comeback," Germany's three-time wrestling world champion Frank Staebler told news portal t-online.

He contracted the virus late last year and after a long period of recovery, he won a Greco-Roman bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.

But it was a lengthy process.

"In this case, (doing) a lot doesn't help much. You just need a lot of patience," Staebler added. "Joshua Kimmich now has something he has never had before and that is very difficult to assess, because there are no long-term medical studies."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE