Bayern Munich expect Vincent Kompany to be out for weeks after virus-related collapse

Bayern Munich expect manager Vincent Kompany to miss several weeks after collapsing at the club’s training ground with a virus, sporting director Max Eberl has confirmed.

The 40-year-old remains in hospital in a stable condition while he undergoes further medical examinations. Bayern have not yet determined how long Kompany will need to recover.

“We need to firstly figure out what it is and then we’ll discuss calmly what recovery time is to be,” Eberl told reporters on Saturday. “We won’t be talking about days, but weeks. We need to all be clear on that.”

Eberl said Bayern would not attempt to accelerate Kompany’s return and that the former Manchester City and Belgium captain would be allowed as much time as necessary to make a full recovery.

Assistant coach Aaron Danks will lead the defending Bundesliga champions in Sunday’s away match against Freiburg. The club has continued preparing for the fixture in Kompany’s absence.

Danks said he had spoken briefly to Kompany on Friday, but the conversation was focused solely on his health.

“I explained to him that we wouldn’t be having any football conversations. It was just checking in on his health and making sure he’s OK,” Danks said.

“All the football operations are in our hands and we’ll work together as a team to keep the club moving forward.”

Bayern’s second-team match was postponed after Kompany’s collapse, although the club chose not to seek a postponement of Sunday’s Bundesliga fixture.

Eberl said the players could best support their manager by producing a strong display and securing a positive result at Freiburg.

“I think the greatest joy for Vinnie would be for us to play well tomorrow and, ideally, get a positive result,” he said. “That would probably be one of the best things we could do to help him recover.”

Germany captain Joshua Kimmich will also be unavailable for the match after taking bereavement leave earlier in the week, Danks confirmed.

Kompany was in the dugout for Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Arsenal, despite missing the pre-match news conference because of his illness. He said afterwards that trying to continue while suffering from the virus had affected him.

“I caught a pretty nasty virus last week, and of course I didn’t listen to my body – and then at some point my body just said, ‘enough is enough!’” he said.

Bayern go into Sunday’s game at the top of the Bundesliga, with Freiburg one point behind them. Their next Champions League fixture is away to Atletico Madrid in Spain on November 3.