Borussia Dortmund won 3-0 over Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League on Wednesday evening. Goals from Jamie Gittens, Ramy Bensebaini and Serhou Guirassy increased the number of points in this year’s edition of the competition to twelve. Dortmund’s win will go a long way towards helping the club secure a place in the knockout rounds.

Unfortunately for The Black and YellowsYesterday’s victory was not in vain. German international Julian Brandt left the pitch at half-time during the game in the Croatian capital, which could be an indication that the player has sustained an injury.

Originally the substitution could have been due to two factors; A rather quiet first half from Brandt and the fact that Dortmund are expecting Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga this weekend. Brandt has played a lot of minutes for Dortmund this season (almost 1500 minutes), which will undoubtedly lead to fatigue and a loss of form.

The reality of the situation only became clear after the game when Brandt told Sky reporters that it would be “difficult” for him to play against Bayern this weekend. Sports director Sebastian Kehl also fueled injury speculation by expressing his skepticism about Brandt’s chances:

“I am very skeptical. If someone leaves the field before the end of the half, that’s not a good sign. It’s something muscular.”

– Sebastian Kehl

The tragedy of this injury, especially in view of such an important game for Dortmund in the Bundesliga, cannot be overstated. Although Brandt’s form has seen its ups and downs this season, he is still considered the creative lynchpin of the Dortmund team and will be heavily missed on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see how Dortmund head coach Nuri Şahin reacts to this new development. The club is lucky that so many players managed to return to training (at least) before the Bayern game, as Şahin now has a few options to choose from that will help put together a solid lineup.

On the one hand, Dortmund could perhaps remove the 10 from the lineup entirely and let the first two players, Maximilian Beier and Serhou Guirassy, ​​play. Şahin has dabbled in it in the past with mixed success, but with Beier seemingly showing his strengths in Dortmund’s recent games, it might be worth the risk to try again.

Şahin’s other option is to replace Brandt in the lineup with Gio Reyna, giving the American international the ultimate opportunity to showcase his mettle for the current Dortmund squad. The only concern here would be that he himself has only just returned from injury and came on both in the game against Dinamo Zagreb and as a substitute The Black and YellowsThe 4-0 win against Freiburg last weekend.

The upcoming game against Bayern could prove to be a crucial turning point for Dortmund’s season. It is vital that Şahin makes the right decision when it comes to replacing Brandt, especially if Dortmund have any hope of getting within touching distance of an actual title race this season.