By Rune Gjerulff@runegjerulff

Dortmund chief: Signing a centre-back not 'absolutely necessary'

Borussia Dortmund are keeping a close eye on the centre-back situation, but don't necessarily have to reinforce the position, according to club boss Hans-Jooachim Watzke.
Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Hans-Joachim Watzke.Photo: Marco Verch, CC BY-SA 2.0
With Mats Hummels, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Soumaila Coulibaly and Nnamdi Collins all out injured for the time being, Manuel Akanji is currently the only fit natural centre-back in Borussia Dortmund's squad.

Still, the club's CEO, Hans-Joachim Watzke, doesn't believe it's 'absolutely necessary' for Dortmund to add another central defender to their ranks before the transfer window slams shut.

"Manuel will be back tomorrow, Mats is here. I think he'll be back much sooner than has been speculated. Emre is also back. In September, we'll have two more centre-backs, so hopefully after the international break in September, we'll have four or five centre-backs," said Watzke on Wednesday, according to BVBBuzz.

"As things stand, we don't think it's absolutely necessary for us to strengthen ourselves at centre-back. But I'm not ruling anything out, we're monitoring the situation closely."

Match days

German Teams in Europe

DFB-Pokal

German National Team

Long reads

Exclusive interviews

Team News

Bundesliga - FC Bayern - Augsburg