Bayern Munich have to do without Joshua Kimmich as they begin training. The 30-year-old is starting pre-season with an individual conditioning programme because of the ankle injury he sustained last year.
Bayern Munich begin their training restart without Joshua Kimmich, with the club confirming that the midfielder is not taking part in full team sessions as preparations for the competitive return get underway.
The thirty year old is instead following an individual conditioning programme, a precaution linked to the ankle issues that have been troubling him since the previous year and which flared up again around the end of the calendar year. Bayern have not provided a concrete timeline for his reintegration into collective training, leaving his availability for the first matches of January as an open question.
Kimmich’s situation has been building for weeks rather than appearing suddenly at the start of the year. As early as mid November, he was forced to miss a match because of discomfort in the ankle. Shortly afterwards came a striking moment that underlined how carefully Bayern were monitoring his condition: in the emphatic six two win over Freiburg, Kimmich remained on the bench for the entire ninety minutes, something that had not happened for seven years. The decision was framed as a risk management call by Vincent Kompany, who preferred not to expose one of his most relied upon players to additional strain when he was already dealing with a sensitive joint problem.
The same cautious approach continued into Bayern’s final fixture of the year. In the four nil win away at Heidenheim, Kimmich not only missed the match, but was not included in the matchday squad at all. That detail matters because it suggests the issue was not simply about rotation or workload management in a busy period. It was a conscious decision to protect the ankle and avoid aggravation, particularly given Kimmich’s reputation for playing through pain and pushing himself beyond his comfort threshold when the situation demands it.
Kompany’s comments at the time offered a clear view of the internal thinking. He explained that Kimmich would have been used only in an extreme scenario, essentially if Bayern had suffered a sudden wave of illness that reduced the number of available options. The coach explicitly referenced a scenario of four or five additional players falling ill. Because that did not happen, the staff chose to keep Kimmich out entirely and preserve him, prioritising his longer term availability over any short term convenience.
Now, with the calendar turned to the new year, Bayern are still treating the issue with caution. The club announcement on Saturday confirmed that Kimmich is absent from team training at the start of the preparation period. The wording from Bayern indicates that he is following an individual programme initially, after an injury to the joint capsule in his ankle sustained toward the end of the year. That type of injury can be particularly frustrating because it is not always about a single dramatic incident, but about stability, swelling, pain response, and how the joint copes with high intensity changes of direction, all of which are central to a player who covers as much ground and engages as aggressively as Kimmich does.
The practical concern for Bayern is that the match schedule resumes quickly, with little margin for extended delays. The immediate run of competitive fixtures includes a home match against Wolfsburg on eleven January, followed by an away trip to Cologne on fourteen January, then a high profile league clash against RB Leipzig on seventeen January. Shortly after that comes a European night at home to Union Saint Gilloise on twenty one January. With matches arriving in such quick succession, the coaching staff will have to balance two priorities that often pull in opposite directions: getting a key organiser back into the rhythm of the team, and ensuring that any return does not trigger another setback that could sideline him for longer.
Kimmich’s absence, even if temporary, matters tactically. He is not just another midfielder in the squad rotation. He acts as a tempo setter, a structural reference point in possession, and a player who often dictates Bayern’s pressing triggers and transitional positioning. When he is unavailable, Bayern typically need to adjust either by changing the midfield pairing, redistributing set piece responsibility, or modifying build up patterns to compensate for his passing range and his tendency to drop into deeper zones to help control the first phase of play. Depending on how Kompany has shaped the team, the absence could also push different profiles into more prominent roles, especially if the coach wants to preserve the same intensity in pressing and counter pressing without exposing the back line.
Against that backdrop, the club’s update also included a more encouraging personnel note in relation to Jamal Musiala. Bayern reported that Musiala began his preparation work on Friday, starting individual sessions ahead of the rest of the squad as planned. The twenty two year old has not played a match this season due to injury, so any progress in his rehabilitation is significant, particularly because his creativity and ability to destabilise opponents between the lines can change the dynamic of Bayern’s attacking play. His early start suggests that Bayern are trying to accelerate his reintegration so he can be ready to contribute once competitive matches resume, even if the exact timing of his return to full match fitness remains dependent on how his body responds to increased training loads.
The broader training schedule at Säbener Straße also indicates that Bayern are approaching the restart with a structured plan. The full squad is due to report for performance tests on Saturday, followed by the first full team training session on Sunday. In this context, Kimmich’s absence from the group becomes even more notable, because it confirms that his situation is not being treated as a minor inconvenience, but as a controlled rehabilitation process with a deliberate ramp up rather than immediate reintegration.
For Bayern supporters and for Kompany’s staff, the key questions now are straightforward. How quickly can Kimmich transition from individual work to full team training, and will he be physically ready to handle the intensity of match play without limitation. Bayern’s refusal to provide a return date can be interpreted in two ways: either the club is being cautious and does not want to commit publicly while monitoring daily progress, or the situation remains uncertain enough that any firm timeline would be speculative. In either case, Bayern are clearly prioritising caution, likely influenced by what happened in November and December when the ankle issue was managed by rest, non selection, and clear avoidance of unnecessary risk.
In the short term, Bayern’s early January fixtures will reveal how well the squad can maintain control and rhythm without one of their most influential players participating fully in preparation. In the medium term, the club will be hoping that this individual programme is a brief bridge back to full training rather than the beginning of a longer pattern of recurring ankle problems.
