Neuer out for rest of year with broken rib
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer will be sidelined for the rest of the year after suffering a broken rib, manager Vincent Kompany confirmed.
Neuer missed the Bundesliga win over Heidenheim and joins a number of Bayern players on the injury list.
The 38 year-old was hurt in the German Cup loss to Bayer Leverkusen last week after crashing into an opponent and getting sent off with a straight red card, his first ever.
"He is nursing a broken rib. He will most likely not play any more this year. It is important for this to heal and from January we'll have him again," Kompany said.
"It's not too bad, but with so many matches it's too early for him to play."
Bayern is already without injured top scorer Harry Kane, Joao Palhinha, Alphonso Davies and Serge Gnabry among others for the midweek Champions League game agaist Shakhtar Donetsk.
But with the winter break approaching, Kompany said the Bundesliga leader has done well so far to compensate for the absences.
The Bavarians are in 13th place on nine points in the Champions League table and are a point outside the top eight, who automatically qualify for the last 16.
Host side Shakhtar, who will stage the game in Gelsenkirchen, is 26th on four points, two points off the playoff places.
"The issue of injuries is that clearly we have a lot of people absent but we held on well until now," Kompany said."From early January we will have a big squad again. We handled it well so far."
