BVB Faces Injury Crisis as Karetsas Collapses
For 23 minutes, it was just another pre-season night at Signal Iduna Park. Then everything stopped.
Giannis Karetsas, Borussia Dortmund’s 18-year-old Greek winger, suddenly sat down on the turf with no opponent near him. Seconds earlier he had glided past a defender, slipped off a routine pass and jogged on. Then came the raised arm, the urgent call for help, and a stadium that went from noise to numb in an instant.
Medical staff sprinted on. Paramedics followed. Karetsas was treated on the pitch, then carried off on a stretcher, visibly in tears, as the crowd rose to applaud him. The concern was immediate – and different.
Mats Hummels, watching on as a pundit for Prime Video, captured the unease.
"When the doctors didn’t look at his legs at all and were only focused on his upper body, it sent a shiver down my spine. We wouldn’t wish something like that on anyone. They were really horrible images that we had to see there," the Dortmund legend said.
Those images hung over BVB’s 3-2 win against Villarreal far more than the scoreline.
Shock and uncertainty
After the final whistle, sporting managing director Lars Ricken confirmed that Karetsas had been taken to hospital.
The plan now: a full battery of tests "to rule everything out in the end".
"We have to wait and see what the next few days bring," Ricken said, clearly shaken. He spoke of "circulatory problems out of nowhere", stressing there had been "no indication of anything".
"I had of course been somewhat shocked," he admitted.
Sporting director Ole Book was with the youngster as he left the pitch.
"I went out with him, but at that moment he was not directly able to speak," Book said. "We obviously hope that it gets better very, very quickly and that it is nothing serious."
No one at Dortmund had seen this coming. No warning signs in training, no prior complaints.
"It came very suddenly. He sat down and was then taken to hospital for further examinations, where he still is now. That obviously dampens the mood considerably," Book added.
At half-time, with players shaken and fans restless for news, the club finally offered a small dose of relief. BVB announced that Karetsas was "doing well under the circumstances". Coach Niko Kovac took that message straight into the dressing room.
"I told my players that everything is fine. They are worried as well," Kovac said.
Fine is a relative term on a night like this. But at least it was something.
Terrible timing for injury-hit Dortmund
Even before Karetsas went down, Dortmund’s luck with injuries had already turned cruel.
A longer absence for the Greek winger would hit hard. New signing Giannis Konstantelias had already suffered a torn cruciate ligament on his Bundesliga debut against HSV on the opening matchday and faces a long spell out. One promising attacking option gone for months; now another in hospital after less than half an hour.
Dortmund had reacted to the Konstantelias blow by moving quickly in the transfer market before the window closed, bringing in Ethan Nwaneri on loan from Arsenal. On Tuesday night, it was Nwaneri who came on for Karetsas, thrown into a game overshadowed by concern rather than tactics.
The problems don’t stop up front. They’re stacking up at the back as well.
For the clash with Villarreal, Kovac had to do without Nico Schlotterbeck, Emre Can and Filippo Mane, all sidelined. Ramy Bensebaini is still struggling with a rib contusion and would not have been available anyway because of his second yellow-red card in the 1-4 defeat at Atalanta Bergamo in February.
One by one, key pieces are being stripped away just as the season starts to take shape.
On a night when BVB scored three and beat a strong Spanish side, the result felt secondary. The real question hangs over a teenager in a hospital bed and a club already stretched thin:
How many more blows can this squad absorb before the campaign truly begins?
