Stuttgart striker Deniz Undav has suffered a torn muscle fibre and will be out for the “coming weeks”, the Bundesliga club have said.
Undav, 28, suffered the injury in training on Wednesday and is not expected to play again until after the winter break, following an MRI scan.
The Germany international is in his second second at Stuttgart having initially joined on loan in 2023 from Brighton & Hove Albion, scoring 18 goals in 30 Bundesliga games in his first season as Sebastian Hoeness’s side rose from a 16th-placed finish in 2022-23 to second and Champions League qualification last campaign.
Undav also became a Germany international and was included in Julian Nagelsmann’s squad for the recent European Championship.
He made his move permanent over the summer, signing for €32.6million (£28m) and becoming the most expensive arrival in Stuttgart’s history.
Hoeness’s Stuttgart suffered significant losses over the summer. Serhou Guirassy, who scored 28 goals last season and with whom combined so well in attack, was sold to Borussia Dortmund. Waldemar Anton, the lynchpin centre-back, moved to Dortmund, too, significantly weakening the defence.
Stuttgart are currently 11th in the Bundesliga, having won just three games. While their Champions League performances have been admirable and have featured an impressive display against Real Madrid and an unlikely win over Juventus in Turin, they have taken just four points from four games and are currently outside of the qualification places for the play-off round.
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Undav has still been vital, though. Top scorer with six goals in all competitions, he has helped to shoulder the responsibility following Guirassy’s departure, as well as becoming a key part of the side’s intricate attacking build-up and lessening the burden on fellow centre-forward, Ermedin Demirovic. Undav scored his first international goal for Germany in September’s 2-2 draw with the Netherlands.
Since leaving Brighton, he has become a much more rounded player — creative, as well as a goal-threat — and so this is a blow that Stuttgart could have done without. The league fixture list between now and the end of the year is forgiving, with Hoeness and his players not facing any of the current top six. They will be without Undav for a tricky-looking trip to Belgrade to face Crvena Zvezda in the Champions League, though, and what looks like a must-win game against Young Boys at home.
(Christian Kaspar-Bartke – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
