Bayern Munich star goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has been out since Mar. 5 with a torn muscle fiber in his right calf that he suffered during a 3-0 blowout win over Bundesliga title rivals Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16.
The young Jonas Urbig, acquired from FC Koln in the winter transfer window, has ably stepped in for Neuer as the club’s most promising backup in years, but the German footballing legend’s return is soon on the horizon.
According to a report from Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Neuer is working hard on his comeback at the club facilities and is targeting a Mar. 29 return date against bottom-half Bundesliga side St. Pauli.
The fixture will be Bayern’s first after the international break, and it will be a chance for Neuer to get a warm welcome reception from the crowd at the Allianz Arena. Thereafter, on Apr. 4, Bayern will have a tougher game against local rivals Augsburg.
Manuel Neuer has a clean sheet in over half of his games
In total, that means Neuer would have only missed three starts for Bayern. Die Roten had no trouble dispatching of Leverkusen in the Champions League, winning the second leg 2-0 without the 38-year-old club captain.
They did lose 3-2 to Bochum and drew 1-1 with Union Berlin, but Neuer could not have done too much to avoid the poor results in those games. Urbig actually did well against Bochum; Bayern were truly that dreadful in the loss.
Neuer has missed nearly 10 games this season with three different injuries. Father time is beginning to catch up to the former Schalke star, because while he has a clean sheet percentage of 55 and just 0.75 goals allowed per game, he is not even saving 63 percent of the shots he has faced in the 2024/25 Bundesliga season so far.
Urbig’s time could be coming sooner than Neuer wants to admit, but we all know how tough it is to unseat Neuer, who still has that ability to shine the brightest in the biggest of games.
His return will be a welcome sight for the Champions League, too, as Bayern Munich will have a very tough quarterfinal test against Simone Inzaghi, old friends Benjamin Pavard and Yann Sommer, and the reigning Serie A champions Inter Milan.
The first leg of the quarterfinal against Inter Milan will take place on Apr. 8, four days after the Augsburg game, at the Allianz Arena. A week later, Bayern will play Der Klassiker against Borussia Dortmund and then Inter again on Apr. 16 at the Giuseppe Meazza.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.