FC Bayern has given the drama surrounding Manuel Neuer a new twist. The club worked on the cause of his serious skiing accident with previously unknown details in a 32-minute documentary (“The Comeback”). Or, as the club wrote: “We were at Neuer’s side during the difficult times.”
You can see “the first steps, but also setbacks in rehab, through the first training on the pitch and the return to team training right up to the big comeback”. That was against Darmstadt on October 28th, when Bayern’s 8-0 victory almost eclipsed the 37-year-old’s return due to a lack of employment.
In the video document, however, the club makes the drama of the injury clear. Neuer himself talks about the return, as do the team doctors Professor Peter Ueblacker and Doctor Jochen Hahne. Ueblacker’s review of the events is clear: “It was a very serious injury. “Probably the hardest that we have seen here at FC Bayern in connection with professional football in recent years or decades.”
The first mountain rescuer on site didn’t even recognize Neuer
Review, December 9, 2022: After the botched World Cup in Qatar, Neuer goes on a ski tour with friends in the Spitzingsee area. From the summit of the Roßkopf (1580 meters) you start the descent to the southeast towards Grünsee.
At just over 1,400 meters above sea level, the goalkeeper falls off-piste on a popular deep snow run. His companions immediately make an emergency call. Did the fall happen because there was only eleven centimeters of snow?
The first mountain rescuer on site didn’t recognize Neuer at all – because he had nothing to do with football. It quickly becomes clear: because of the terrain and the serious injury, the helicopter has to come. To prevent the keeper from becoming hypothermic, he must be transported away as quickly as possible. A vacuum splint is placed on Neuer at the scene of the accident.
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According to information from BILD, Neuer was pulled into the ADAC helicopter “Christoph Murnau” using a cable winch at around 12.30 p.m. and taken on board in the air. On December 10th he was admitted to the BG accident clinic in Murnau an intramedullary nail was inserted into the shinbone and screws.
Neuer now said about the first moments after the accident: “First the mountain guide called the mountain rescue service. Then I got Jochen from my cell phone (Team doctor Hahne, editor) He then “Wrote a WhatsApp directly to the team group and apologized for it.”
This is how Hahne remembers the call from Neuer. For a minute they “talked about the pain and the trauma. I told him: ‘If you have the opportunity, try to get the helicopter out of Murnau’.”
The first time in the Champions League in over a year
Neuer was out for over 300 days, but fought his way back after a long rehab. This Wednesday evening he will play the Champions League again for the first time since November 1, 2022 (2-0 against Inter Milan), in Group A in the evening against Galatasaray Istanbul (9 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker). But Neuer explained how close the accident in the winter brought him to the end of his career. “I’m very happy that I can play football again – you have to say that very clearly,” he said, going over the day of the accident on the mountain, the innocence at the beginning of the tour, the drama as it progressed. For him, going skiing is as common as “going to get a sandwich”. But then it happened: “There was something under the ski that blocked me.”
When his ski boots were later taken off, “the bad news came. Then it was clear to all the doctors: Oh, it’s more because I played it down a bit, even if I was in pain.”
Professor Ueblacker assessed how severe the injury was. You have to imagine “that the entire lower leg was broken. The tibia and also the fibula,” reported the Munich team doctor: “Medically, this is a very difficult diagnosis, where the first thing is to restore normal function for everyday life.”
“Ulle has done an outstanding job over the last few weeks”
Manuel Neuer is on the verge of a comeback at FC Bayern. This even pleases representative Sven Ulreich, who received a lot of praise from his teammates for his performance after his last starting eleven against Galatasaray.
Weeks and months of hope and fear passed, full of pain and setbacks. In the documentary you can see Bayern midfielder Jamal Musiala watching Neuer’s first training session in rehab. Musiala said: “You are ready. Come straight to the square!” Neuer’s answer: “Invite me!”
He listed what problems he had. He “couldn’t play a pass over three meters, five meters, let alone longer”. “I had a stinging sensation on my right fibula. Then I had to have metal removed. The operation helped me. The knife stab that I felt was then gone,” said Neuer.
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After the comeback against Darmstadt, it became clear what must have happened to Neuer: in one scene, he has already showered and is walking down a hallway in the stadium. The camera team asks him about his impressions. “What is the best thing for me today?” Neuer sums up: “The fact that the surgeons from Murnau were there today. The people who were up on the mountain with me, who helped me. I invited them all today. I’m looking forward to thanking them again.”
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