BVB defensive leader Schlotterbeck on his comeback: "Very emotional" | OneFootball

He wears the number four, but he’s number one. At least according to Kicker. The specialist magazine placed Nico Schlotterbeck at the top of its summer ranking for central defenders. This, despite the 25-year-old BVB pro missing several months due to a meniscus tear. Now, the Dortmund defensive chief is back on the pitch.

“For the first time in a very, very long time,” he was “nervous before a game again,” Schlotterbeck admits in a club interview. In the 1-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg last Sunday, he was part of the matchday squad for the first time since the end of March 2025. “It was very emotional,” reveals the Waiblingen native.

Even before the warm-up, he stepped onto the pitch at Signal Iduna Park. “Which I don’t usually do,” Schlotterbeck explains, “but I wanted to see what the pitch was like and get used to the surroundings.” Even an experienced pro with now 150 Bundesliga appearances needs time to readjust. His teammates came up with something special for his return. “The guys let me go first, I was the first to run out.”

“It’s extremely tough”

The long break wasn’t easy, says the Dortmund defensive strategist. “It’s extremely tough when you see the guys working every day and you’re on crutches the whole time,” Schlotterbeck reports candidly. He didn’t go to the stadium during his injury break. “You’re on crutches, you see the guys, you actually want to get involved and be on the pitch,” but he “wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it.”

He only returned to the Westfalenstadion for the season opener, the 1-2 against Juventus Turin. “Now it’s not much longer, now you’ll get through the last five or six weeks too,” he thought at the time. “That was the moment when I felt that it was about to start again,” he recalls.

Against the Lower Saxons, he played the full 90 minutes straight away. “Physically and in terms of running, I’m really at my maximum,” Schlotterbeck is convinced. “Football-wise,” on the other hand, he’s only “at about 70 percent.” He’s not quite there yet “to get all the routines back with the guys.” But already on Saturday (September 27, 3:30 p.m.) against Mainz 05, the central defender should be another step further along.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.