Feyenoord without captain Gernot Trauner for Champions League clash against Lazio | OneFootball

Feyenoord will take on SS Lazio of Italy on Wednesday night in their third Champions League game of the season. However, the Rotterdamers will be without captain Gernot Trauner as the 31 year old is still recovering from a knee injury. The Centre-Back has missed Feyenoord’s last two games against Zwolle and also their 4-0 win against Vitesse over the weekend. Mikos Gouka of the Algemeen Dagblad reported that the Feyenoord medical staff want to treat Trauner with care in his rehabilitation and not to rush their club captain back to fitness.

During the previous season, whereby Feyenoord achieved their first Eredivisie championship in six years, Trauner underwent knee surgery at the beginning of 2023, missing eight games during the period. Trauner then suffered another knee injury towards the end of the season, this led the defender to miss 13 league games during their title winning season.

Trauner returned to the starting eleven at the start of this season, however, with the return of this recurrent injury the medical staff are cautious about passing Trauner fit to play too early. The Feyenoord manager Arne Slot understands Trauner’s fragility, commenting that ‘it would be a miracle if he could play three games a week for a whole year without any problems.’ Feyenoord will also be without 19-year old winger Yankuba Minteh who picked up an injury during their game against Vitesse at the weekend.

After winning their opening game of the Champions League campaign against Celtic, Feyenoord lost 3-2 to Atletico Madrid in their second game. This finds them third in the table, only one point off first and second placed, Atletico Madrid and Lazio, going into the third round of games. Feyenoord will hope to make a positive step forward in their desire to make it further in the competition, the Rotterdammers know they will have to take advantage of their home crowd when they take on Lazio at De Kuip on Wednesday evening.

GBeNeFN | Max Mumford