Mats Hummels is facing an anxious wait to see whether he is fit to face Atletico Madrid on Wednesday after limping out of Bayern Munich's 1-0 win at Hamburg, a match that proved the final straw for Hamburg manager Bruno Labbadia who was releived of his duties by the German club on Sunday.
Atletico host Bayern at Madrid's Vicente Calderon with both sides having won their opening Group D matches in the Uefa Champions League.
But Hummels is an injury concern after being forced off after 50 minutes of Bayern's Bundesliga win on Saturday which kept Carlo Ancelotti's Munich top of the German league table with five wins from five league games.
• Bundesliga results: Old hands Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben score as Bayern Munich go top
“I got a blow on my knee just before the half-time break,” the Germany defender told Sky after the win which left Bayern as the only team in Germany’s top flight with a 100 per cent record.
“We had hoped it would get better as long as I moved, but it just got worse.
“We’re assuming that it was just a knock as the first tests haven’t shown up anything, but there are no guarantees.”
Under Ancelotti, Bayern have won all of their eight matches so far this season in all competitions.
Joshua Kimmich’s late winner in Hamburg came after Thiago Alcantara’s sublime pass freed Franck Ribery on the left wing and the Frenchman’s cross beat the defence.
Victory leaves Bayern three points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund, who beat Freiburg 3-1 on Friday when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his fifth goal in their five games.
“It was a very hard affair, which at the end was settled by an incredible moment from Thiago and Franck,” Hummels said.
“Hamburg are always an unpleasant team to play against. We were a bit slow and a bit unprecise in our play.”
The match winner agreed that Bayern were slow to react in the first half and need to raise their game for Atletico.
“We were uninspired in the first half and didn’t have many chances,” Kimmich said.
“We were better after the break and had three or four fat chances, but at the end we were lucky to have got the goal.”
Ribery, a second-half replacement for Kingsley Coman, lived dangerously with a patronising pinch of Muller’s cheek following a tussle midway through the second half which escaped the referee’s attention.
It is the latest in a string of off-the-ball incidents involving the Frenchman which had earned him a ticking off from Ancelotti at the start of the season.
“It’s always questionable when the hand touches a face,” said Hummels after watching replays of the incident.
“When they are both friends, then it’s just a pleasantry, but I’m not sure how well they know each other,” he added tongue-in-cheek.
Labbadia became the second Bundesliga manager to be sacked this season after Hamburg announced on Sunday he had been fired in the wake of his team’s fourth straight defeat.
Labbadia returned for his second stint with Hamburg in April 2015, but was shown the door for the second time after his team’s 1-0 loss at home to defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.
The defeat left them third from bottom and Hamburg’s board has lost patience after league defeats to Bayer Leverkusen, plus newly promoted teams Freiburg and RB Leipzig.
With only five league games played so far this season, Labbadia, 50, is the second Bundesliga manager sacked in the space of a week after Werder Bremen fired Viktor Skripnik.
Saturday’s results
• Borussia Monchengladbach 2-0 Ingolstadt4
• Eintracht Frankfurt 3-3 Hertha Berlin
• Hamburg 0-1 Bayern Munich
• Mainz 2-3 Bayer Leverkusen
• Augsburg 1-0 Darmstadt
• Werder Bremen 2-1 Wolfsburg
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