Carney Chukwuemeka's Injury Concerns During Borussia Dortmund's Pre-Season
Carney Chukwuemeka’s pre-season with Borussia Dortmund had barely begun when the grass seemed to swallow his right leg.
Eight minutes into the friendly in Tokyo, with no opponent near him, the midfielder caught his studs in the turf and went down. No crunching tackle, no obvious collision – just a sharp twist, a grimace, and then the sight every coaching staff dreads on a humid summer tour.
He tried to get up. For a moment, it looked like a scare rather than a setback. After a thorough on-pitch examination of his right knee, Chukwuemeka returned to the game, jogging back into position, testing his stride. BVB will have taken that as a positive sign.
It didn’t last.
Hope, then a grim reality
Just over 20 minutes had been played when the 22-year-old sank to the turf again. This time there was no bravado, no attempt to run it off. He sat down, shoulders slightly slumped, clearly still restricted in his movement. The call to the bench followed quickly.
Off came Chukwuemeka. On came new midfield talent Takato Yamamoto, handed an earlier-than-expected opportunity in front of his home crowd. For the coaching staff, the substitution may yet prove to be a precaution. Until the medical team delivers a diagnosis, no one inside the club will know exactly how serious the damage is.
But the timing could hardly be worse.
Chukwuemeka had only just rejoined Dortmund’s pre-season group after an extended break following the World Cup in North America. This was supposed to be the moment he underlined his ambition, a clear statement that he wanted a bigger role at BVB in 2026/27 than he held last season.
Instead, his latest outing ended with another walk down the tunnel, accompanied by the medical staff.
A player on the rise, suddenly halted
The situation stings all the more because of the trajectory he has been on. Long regarded as a bright prospect in England’s youth system, Chukwuemeka made a major career decision in March, switching his international allegiance to Austria, the country of his birth.
The ÖFB rewarded that choice quickly. The midfielder went straight into Austria’s World Cup squad and featured in three of their four matches at the tournament. In the round of 32 against eventual champions Spain, he came on at half-time in a 3-0 defeat, thrown into the thick of elite international knockout football.
His club form had supported that rise. When he arrived in Dortmund at the start of 2025, he did so with a history of knee issues, a red flag for any top-level midfielder. Over the course of last season, though, he managed those recurring problems well enough to put together a solid campaign: 38 appearances in all competitions, three goals, two assists. Not yet a star, but clearly part of the core rotation and trending upward.
This pre-season was meant to be about building on that base. Instead, the focus now turns back to scans, assessments and timelines.
A troubled tour of Japan
Chukwuemeka’s setback is not the only concern BVB will bring home from Japan.
Earlier in the week, Dortmund had already stumbled in a 1-0 defeat to Cerezo Osaka, a flat performance compounded by another enforced change. Young centre-back Filippo Mane left that match with thigh problems. The initial impression from the club was that the issue was not too serious, but it was serious enough to keep him out of the squad entirely against Tokyo.
So the tour, intended as a blend of marketing exercise, conditioning work and tactical fine-tuning, has been overshadowed by interruptions and medical bulletins.
Even the weather joined in.
Just past the half-hour mark of Saturday’s game, play stopped abruptly. Monsoon-like rain hammered down, and a local thunderstorm warning forced the referee to send both teams back to the dressing rooms. For around half an hour the friendly became a waiting game, players and staff stuck in limbo while the storm raged outside.
When the match finally resumed, the spectacle returned. The questions, though, will follow Dortmund all the way back to Germany.
How bad is Chukwuemeka’s knee? Can Mane shake off his thigh issue quickly? And with the new season approaching, how many more blows can BVB absorb before pre-season stops being a launchpad and starts to feel like a warning?
