Werder Bremen confirmed more unfortunate injury news on Monday. Already without lead striker Marvin Ducksch for a sustained period, the Bundesliga outfit will also lose Danish midfielder Jens Stage for most of summer training camp. Stage cannot set foot on the pitch due to a painful stress fracture in his foot.
Stage – generally considered to be a more defensive-minded midfielder – suddenly sprung to life for the Hanseaten last season. A hat trick in a 3-4 away win over Hoffenheim on matchday five was only the beginning.
Stage went on to score 10 league goals and register five assists over the course of the campaign. In the past year, the twice-capped international has nearly doubled his estimated market value from €7.5m to €14m.
Kicker listed Stage as one of the potential candidates for sale at Werder this summer. Thus far, the north Germans haven’t concluded a single purchase or sale in the current window. A loan deal for Leeds United defender Maximilian Wöber serves as the only official transaction.
Should Werder – as they did with Hoffenheim prospect Fisnik Asllani – not wish to miss out on further transfer targets, some way of generating budgetary inlays must commence soon. It is such that the Stage news counts as doubly grim.
GGFN | Peter Weis
