After Gnabry's injury: this breakout star now battles for the World Cup
After Gnabry's injury: this breakout star now battles for the World Cup Last Saturday evening, the German record champions made the bad news official: "FC Bayern will be without Serge Gnabry for a longer period. The attacker has suffered a tear of the adductor muscles in his right thigh," the Munich club announced briefly and precisely through their own channels. The injury to the attacker, who had been in very strong form for large parts of the season, is bitter in three different ways.
First, Bayern will be without him during the crucial phase of the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League. Second, the 30-year-old apparently suffered the injury during penalty training before the match against VfB Stuttgart, not in a competitive game. The third reason, of course, is this year's upcoming World Cup.
Under national team coach Julian Nagelsmann, Serge Gnabry had been a regular starter and would in all likelihood also have played an important role at the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. "The dream is unfortunately over for me," the Bayern star confirmed a few days after his injury. 📸 Alexander Hassenstein - 2026 Getty Images What remains unclear now is who can replace the Bayern star in Germany's starting XI this summer and who will secure the likely open squad spot for the tournament.
Since Gnabry had recently mostly been used as a relatively flexible attacking midfielder, it seems especially likely that Flo Wirtz, who has lately been playing as a left-sided attacker, and Jamal Musiala will provide the spark in attack. But who will move into the squad in Gnabry's place? After the topic had already been debated endlessly in recent months, one name has to come up immediately here: Said El Mala.
The Cologne superstar was allowed to travel with the senior national team for the first time last autumn after his outstanding start to the season, but Julian Nagelsmann did not include him during the last international break in March. Instead of letting his head drop, El Mala has once again made a big impact on the pitch in recent weeks. The youngster scored for FC both in the derby against Gladbach and in the important 3-1 home win over SV Werder Bremen.