Chapter 794: Update from the Team

After this little rehabilitation session, Higo went to the living room once again. Borrowing Kumiko’s laptop, he accepted a group call from the team, as it seemed that Frohling wanted to give an update on the squad’s current situation.

Well, it didn’t take long before he entered the group call, and there, the boy had already found so many familiar people waving at him.

"Hey, Ryusuke! How are you doing there?!" Fabian couldn’t help but ask. "I heard that it will take five to eight weeks for you to recover; is that true?"

Higo felt the corner of his lips twitch a little here. "Who the hell would spread a rumor about my recovery time?" He blurted out a question back to his friend immediately.

"Yes, Fab! It is clear that it will take him six to ten weeks! At least, that was what I heard from some sources!" Ozan Kabak chimed in, saying that information confidently.

"Wait, I asked the doctors at the Marienhospital, and they told me it would be shorter than that!" Weston McKennie also jumped in the call.

Higo was so speechless right now. He was the one who got involved in this mess, and yet, how could he not know all the rumors that spread about his recovery time? Worse, all of them were wrong, for God’s sake! It should be four weeks! Four fucking weeks!

Before he could say anything to refute that, though, someone suddenly joined as well. This time, it was Higo’s countryman, the team’s probably best player this year, Morita himself.

"Hey, hey, how could it be that it is only Higo who receives such a heartwarming concern?! I am also injured, you know?! This is discrimination, I tell you that!" Even though his tone was playful, it was clear that the man was complaining right now.

This made those who were on the call grin at each other sheepishly. Yeah, somehow, they forgot that before Higo, Morita had already been sidelined first, what with him feeling his hamstring tighten a day before the game against Union Berlin.

"Oh, yeah, Morita-san, how is your injury?" Higo asked the other pitiful person in this call. "I had intended to visit you after the game together with Kumiko-chan and Sakura-san, but everything spiraled into the worst-case scenario that I somehow forgot about you."

Morita felt the corner of his lips twitch at how frankly Higo admitted that the boy forgot about him. Not that the midfielder could blame him, of course, since the goalkeeper was in an unfortunate predicament right now.

"Not bad, I guess. However, my recovery time is longer than yours, about seven to eight weeks. It seems that we both will not be able to finish this season on the pitch, huh?" He sighed, his tone self-deprecating.

The atmosphere dropped immediately, as not just Higo, but the rest of the players went solemn. Higo and Morita were two of the most important players for the team this season, and their departure, even if it was just one game—or even less, in Higo’s case—had already hurt the team quite badly.

In the game against Union Berlin, not only did the midfield lose all the creativity that they usually offered to break through the midfield, but the moment Higo was out of the game, the team’s defense succumbed to chaos. The penalty couldn’t be blamed on the goalkeeper, but the chaotic situation in defense sure could be attributed to Higo’s lack of presence there.

"Oh, so you guys have been here already? Good." Frohling popped out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of all the players here. The man sure had a penchant for being dramatic. "Anyway, we are going to talk about how we should approach the rest of the season. Four weeks and seven games left, our situation is still not secure enough from the relegation zone. I would love to talk to you guys in the meeting room, but unfortunately, some couldn’t join, so we have to do this online."

Higo could feel the corner of his lips twitching once again. It was either the head coach didn’t know how to read the somber atmosphere in the room or that he knew but he couldn’t care less about it. Whatever the truth was, it was definitely not good for the players’ hearts.

Still, his presence was enough to silence all the chatter in this call. Hell, even in front of the camera, all the players there straightened their backs unconsciously, as if they were expecting to get a good scolding from the man.

"First thing first, injury update," Frohling said while also narrowing his eyes at the paper in front of him. "So far, we have Higo for four weeks, Morita for seven weeks, and Bastian for eight weeks. Those three are not going to be with us for the rest of the season, so some people need to step up their game here. Count it as your chance to impress me, because next season, I will still be here as the team’s head coach."

Some people, especially those who hoped that the man would be gone since he was just an interim coach, grimaced instantly when they heard that. Hell, some players who were regular during the former head coach and got sidelined in Frohling’s era even started thinking about contacting their agent, wanting to get the fuck out of this town as quickly as possible.

Still, since Higo wasn’t included in that list, the boy wasn’t really worried about that part. Instead, he listened carefully at the meeting here, where Frohling explained a lot of things regarding next season.

Yeah, even though this season was far from over, they had to think about the next one already. After all, the normal schedule would be around the second week of August, and this season itself would only end at the end of June.

That meant the team would have at least four weeks to prepare, a very short time for a pre-season period.

Higo himself also stared at his injured shoulder; somehow, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth right now.

’Eight weeks before the next season begins... Will I be able to recover in time?’