Vincent Kompany to miss weeks after Bayern Munich collapse, says Max Eberl

Vincent Kompany remains in hospital in a stable condition after collapsing during Bayern Munich’s reserve-team training on Friday, but the manager is expected to be unavailable for weeks, sporting director Max Eberl said.

The 40-year-old Belgian had been suffering from a virus in recent days and had already missed several training sessions before falling ill.

Bayern are putting Kompany’s recovery first and will wait for a diagnosis before considering when he might return, Eberl said on Saturday.

“We need to firstly figure out what it is and then we’ll discuss calmly what the recovery time is to be,” Eberl told reporters in Munich.

“We’re not talking about days, but weeks. We all need to be clear on that.”

Bayern postponed the reserve side’s fixture after Kompany collapsed. However, Eberl said the club had never considered asking for Sunday’s Bundesliga match at Freiburg to be delayed.

“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.”

Assistant coach Aaron Danks will lead Bayern against Freiburg. He said his only conversation with Kompany had been to check on the manager’s health rather than discuss football.

“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 Munich are top of the Bundesliga after taking 14 points from their opening six matches. They are ahead of Borussia Dortmund on goal difference, while third-placed Freiburg are one point behind.