Chapter 1 Continuing Recovery Training

Zhou Yi arrived at the training base's gym to continue his physical recovery training. Although he was now training with the team on tactical aspects, he still had elements that required individual training.

He would carve out some time every day to strengthen his body.

As he entered the locker room, he heard heavy breathing inside.

"Hey, Mark, you've collapsed again?" Zhou Yi said, walking around a row of equipment to see Mark Wagner sprawled on the floor.

Hearing Zhou Yi's voice, Mark Wagner didn't even lift his head, nor did he reply immediately, because he was panting heavily, unable to speak coherently.

After a while, he said, "I want to be faster..."

"Hey, there are objective laws at play here, Mark. It's not like you can just train yourself into the ground every day in the gym and recover sooner. I think you should relax a bit and not be so impatient. And, what if your sister finds you? You'll get scolded again." Zhou Yi said, stepping onto a machine to begin his workout.

"I know, Zhou Yi, you're right, but I can't help it..." Mark lay on the ground, his chest rising and falling more gently than before.

In fact, Mark had already recovered from his injury by the end of last season, but he still needed to undergo rehabilitation training to return to competition.

So, while everyone else was on vacation, he returned to the Brackel training base for recovery training.

This time, without his good friend Zhou Yi's help, he had to fight fate alone.

Recovery training was a long process, because his body hadn't been properly active for ten months. He had to gradually increase the intensity, allowing his body to slowly adapt and get familiar with it. Any slight mistake in this process could lead to a secondary injury, making his return to competition seem distant and potentially causing even more serious damage to his body.

Listening to the clanging of the equipment, Mark sat up from the ground, supporting his reclining body with his hands, and looked at Zhou Yi.

"Zhou Yi, will you really be able to play in the next game?"

"Of course."

"Didn't you say to relax a bit and not be too impatient?"

"I'm not injured." Zhou Yi said through gritted teeth as he struggled to lift the weight on his ankles.

"But... you haven't practiced much with the team, so if you play..."

"Don't worry, Mark. I think the coaches know very well whether I can play or not. If they think I can, then I can play."

As the two were talking, footsteps came from the entrance of the gym.

Then, wearing a Borussia Dortmund sports jacket and with her hair in a ponytail, Katharina appeared before them.

Seeing her younger brother was also there, Katharina said with a cold face, "Mark, you shouldn't be here. You've already done your physical training for today."

In front of his older sister, Mark seemed very obedient. He shrank his neck and lowered his head in silence.

His sister was lecturing her brother, and Zhou Yi was watching the fun from the side, a smile always on his face.

But Katharina quickly noticed him and glared at him: "What are you smiling at!"

"Nothing, I just think it's heartwarming to see a sister care for her brother." Zhou Yi said with a smile, shaking his head.

Katharina looked at Zhou Yi suspiciously, unable to tell if he was being sincere or sarcastic.

Zhou Yi naturally guessed what Katharina's look meant, and he waved his hand: "Don't overthink it, I just meant what I said."

Katharina then turned to Mark and said, "Let's go, Mark."

Mark waved to Zhou Yi: "Goodbye, Zhou Yi. If you can play, I wish you a great performance."

"Thank you, Mark. I also wish you a speedy return to the game."

Mark and Katharina left the gym, leaving Zhou Yi alone in the huge room. He began to grit his teeth, struggling with the gym equipment...

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At 2:30 AM Beijing time on August 25th, the new Bundesliga season would kick off, with Borussia Dortmund playing Werder Bremen in the opening match.

The day before the game, Borussia Dortmund announced their eighteen-man squad for the match, and Zhou Yi's name was on the list.

Just as he said, he really might play in this game!

However, some media believed that this was a safety measure by Klopp, and that he didn't really intend to let Zhou Yi play, but put him on the bench. He would only let Zhou Yi play if things got really bad, but in reality, Zhou Yi would likely stay on the bench until the end of the game...

What Chinese media and fans cared about was whether Zhou Yi would start.

Everyone both hoped he would start and didn't want him to start.

They hoped he would start, of course, because they wanted to see him play more, but they didn't want him to start because they felt that his physical fitness hadn't fully recovered, and starting would affect his stamina...

However, while announcing the squad list, Borussia Dortmund didn't announce the starting lineup for the next day's game. That list wouldn't be available until about two hours before the match.

Two hours before the game the next day, the starting lineup was finally released and immediately posted on the Chinese internet.

Zhou Yi would start!

"Holy crap! Has Zhou Yi really recovered?"

"It seems Borussia Dortmund can do without anyone else, but not without Zhou Yi! The core, without a doubt! But won't it be a bit... too tiring?"

"It's a start, it seems the impact of losing the Super Cup to Bayern Munich wasn't as small as Klopp said..."

Online, everyone was talking about it.

The fans were surprised, and the reporters were also surprised.

In the press box of the Westfalenstadion before the game, the reporters who were already in place were also discussing Zhou Yi's start.

"Is Zhou Yi's stamina really okay?"

"Actually, two weeks of physical training is about the same as the team's preseason physical training time, so stamina might not really be a problem. But even if stamina isn't a problem, how much time has he trained with the team? Countless, right? He's a central midfielder, and he has to connect the whole team after he's on the field. How can he connect now?"

"Yes, yes, even if his stamina is okay, his coordination with the team is a problem. Shinji Kagawa is gone, and Marco Reus has come. It's obviously impossible to continue using the tactics from last season..."

"Could it be because of Sven Bender's injury that Zhou Yi started?"

After the Super Cup game against Bayern Munich, Sven Bender was injured in training and was expected to be out for about a month.

"But Zhou Yi and Sven Bender are completely different types of defensive midfielders, and the person to replace Sven Bender shouldn't be him..."

The reporters couldn't figure it out.

The main questions now were two: One, would Zhou Yi's stamina be enough for him to cope with continuous combat just twenty-two days after the end of the Olympics? He was facing not just this game, but on the evening of September 1st, Borussia Dortmund would travel to Nuremberg for the second round of the league. Then, on September 11th, he would have to return home to participate in a key match in the World Cup Asian Qualifiers Top 10 – China's away game against Japan. There was no need to say how important this game was. Chinese media and fans were worried about whether Zhou Yi would have the stamina and form to play this game after two consecutive matches, after all, he would have to fly back from Germany before that, and the travel would also affect the player's physical condition.

The second question was even if Zhou Yi's stamina had met the requirements for playing, what about his form? What about his cooperation with his teammates? Borussia Dortmund had made tactical adjustments this season, but Zhou Yi hadn't trained with the team for very long. When Shinji Kagawa was there, he played as an attacking midfielder, and Zhou Yi retreated to become a defensive midfielder. Now that Shinji Kagawa was gone, and the incoming Marco Reus wasn't the type to play as an attacking midfielder, it was as if there was a vacancy in the attacking midfield position. Would Zhou Yi's position be moved forward, or would he continue to stay in the defensive midfield? This wasn't just a simple change in position on the field, but also involved a whole set of offensive and defensive operations. How much time did Zhou Yi have to practice with his teammates, and were he and his teammates already familiar with each other?

The first of these two questions might not be apparent now, but perhaps the second question could be answered in this game.

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ps, Sorry, when I wrote the last chapter, I miscalculated the time and moved Guardiola's arrival at Bayern Munich forward by one season. This was a major mistake, and I have already corrected it in the last chapter. The next Bayern Munich will still be coached by Heynckes. I apologize for the inconvenience!