Oczipka raring to go against Zenit

Bastian Oczipka is about to make his Schalke comeback. The left back hasn’t played since he came on as a sub in the final game of last season, and underwent an operation during the summer. He’s now fit again and is in the squad to face Zenit St. Petersburg tomorrow (13:00 CET), after Schalke’s main sponsor GAZPROM invited the club to play the game.

Personal

17.11.18, 15:18

“I’m glad to be back,” said Oczipka, who landed in St. Petersburg with the rest of the team on Saturday afternoon. “After being out for so long, I’m raring to get back out on the pitch with the team. The game against Zenit is a good opportunity to get some minutes under my belt,” he added.

The Russian side are currently both top of their league domestically and top of their Europa League group. Oczipka believes that Zenit are “a really good team.”

“After being out for so long, I’m raring to get back out on the pitch with the team.”

Bastian Oczipka

Schalke won’t have their entire squad available for the game due to the international break, and a few of the squad are injured. “Because of this, some of the boys will get the chance to show what they can do,” said head coach Domenico Tedesco. Despite the depleted squad, Schalke still have some big names on board. Captain Ralf Fährmann, Benjamin Stambouli, Matija Nastasic, Naldo and Daniel Caligiuri have all travelled to Russia.

U23 goalkeeper Sören Ahlers, defenders Louis Samson, George Timotheou and Jonas Carls, midfielders Sandro Plechaty, Berkan Firat, Nassim Boujellab and Philip Fontein and attacker Haji Wright have also travelled with the squad. The Under-23s beat Rot-Weiss Ahlen on Wednesday to get their 14th win in 15 games.

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