Köln crisis deepens following bad injury news for Selke and Waldschmidt
Seventeenth-placed Bundesliga side FC Köln confirmed a double whammy of bad injury news on Sunday afternoon.
Matters get worse for relegation-threatened top tier side 1. FC Köln. Despite having picked up a point against Heidenheim yesterday in new head-coach Timo Schultz's debut, Schultz's options personnel wise got significantly thinner on Sunday. Already beset by injuries, the Kölner roster has lost two more attackers. Luca Waldschmidt and the scorer of a goal in yesterday's draw, Davie Selke, have both been ruled out indefinitely.
Waldschmidt couldn't partake yesterday after incurring an injury in the squad's Friday training session. On Sunday, the Effzeh confirmed that an MRI had revealed that the Wolfsburg loanee suffered a fractured fibula. The nature of such an injury will keep Waldschmidt sidelined for several weeks. Shortly after the club released Waldschmidt's update, more bad news.
Köln later revealed that Selke had also undergone an MRI on Sunday after complaining about pain in his foot. Further details on Selke were withheld, but one can assume that such a procedure would not have been undertaken had the club's medical staff not deemed the symptoms serious. The cathedral city side tersely noted that the lead striker would be "unavailable until further notice."
Waldschmidt and Selke are the only two members of the Köln striking corps to have scored in the league this season. Selke has netted five goals while Waldschmidt turned in two tallies. Together, the pair are responsible for seven of the paltry 11 goals Köln have managed to score in the league. Florian Kainz (three goals) and Linton Maina (one) are the only two other players on the roster who have contributed.
A standing transfer ban prevents Köln from signing any new players during the current January transfer window. Schultz has already had to make do without two of his more capable players following another injury set-back for Mark Uth and a fresh injury for Dejan Ljubicic. Strikers Steffen Tigges, Sargis Adamyan, and the recently returned Florian Dietz have been unable to furnish much of note this season.