Bayern Faces Injury Crisis in Telekom Cup Against Leipzig

Bayern count the cost as injuries mar Telekom Cup clash with Leipzig

Pre-season friendlies are supposed to offer rhythm, minutes, and a few gentle answers before the real questions arrive. Bayern Munich instead walked out of the Telekom Cup with a list of problems and three key players hurt in a bruising meeting with RB Leipzig.

The setbacks started almost immediately.

Ten minutes in, Konrad Laimer went into a challenge with David Raum and came off worse. The Austrian, a former Leipzig mainstay, had to leave the pitch early, cutting short a game that should have been a straightforward tune-up.

The pattern didn’t improve as the heat and tempo took hold.

Min-jae Kim was the next to go. The central defender, crucial to Bayern’s structure at the back, exited during the second hydration break around the 66th minute. One more planned pre-season outing became an unwanted medical concern.

Then came the most alarming moment of the afternoon.

Jamal Musiala, who had just scored Bayern’s third goal, appeared to collapse from heat exhaustion only four minutes after finding the net. Medical staff rushed on, and for a moment it looked serious enough that a stretcher might be needed. In a match designed to sharpen fitness, Bayern suddenly found themselves fighting the conditions as much as the opposition.

The final whistle didn’t even bring full relief. Sacha Boey cramped up after the game, another sign of the physical toll on a squad already stretched on the day.

All of this lands at the worst possible time.

The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup is on the horizon next week, with a friendly against Heidenheim still to come in the days before that showpiece. Every one of the players who picked up issues against Leipzig is a first-team regular, central to Vincent Kompany’s plans for the 2026/27 campaign.

Instead of easing into his first full season with a clear picture and a settled core, Kompany heads into the final phase of pre-season juggling lineups, fitness reports, and hope that these blows prove to be minor rather than season-shaping.