Jamal Musiala's Health Scare During Pre-Season Friendly
Jamal Musiala steadied himself on the Voith-Arena turf, then went down.
It was the 67th minute in Heidenheim, a pre-season friendly that suddenly didn’t feel friendly at all. Vincent Kompany had just brought him on in the 61st minute for new signing Ismael Saibari. Six minutes later, the 23-year-old collapsed in midfield, and the images instantly brought back the scenes from the Leipzig game.
Jonathan Tah and Harry Kane sprinted towards him. Players from both sides quickly formed a protective circle, shielding their teammate from the stands as emergency doctors rushed onto the pitch. The football stopped. The noise dropped.
After brief treatment, Musiala got back to his feet. Supported by a staff member, he staggered towards the touchline, clearly disorientated. After a few metres he turned, then disappeared down the tunnel on the opposite side of the pitch. His name rolled around the Voith-Arena as fans tried to lift him. When the stadium announcer confirmed he would be replaced by Cassiano Kiala, the applause grew louder. The concern was obvious.
Bayern play on, but Musiala dominates the night
Bayern went on to win 4-2, but the scoreline felt like background noise.
Felipe Chavez, Arijon Ibrahimovic, Luis Diaz and new signing Nathaniel Brown all found the net for the visitors. On paper, it was a productive test. In reality, every conversation afterwards circled back to one player.
In the mixed zone, board member for sport Max Eberl chose his words carefully. “Jamal will speak about it himself in the foreseeable future. We knew and know about it,” he said when asked about the midfielder’s condition. And his state in that moment? “He’s in the dressing room, he’s getting changed, he’s having a shower.”
The reassurance helped, but only slightly. The pictures of Musiala going down again, so soon after Leipzig, were hard to shake.
“First things first – I’m fine”
On Instagram, Musiala delivered the explanation Bayern had hinted at.
“First things first – I’m fine,” he wrote in a long post. “I understand that many of you are worried. I would like to take that worry away from you today and explain it to you: I have been diagnosed with temporary, briefly occurring but easily treatable absences, which are due to a neurological dysfunction.”
He went on: “These can lead to the moments that have happened recently, like against Leipzig or now here in Heidenheim. I know that at first glance they look scary – but for me they are currently part of everyday life. I am receiving the best possible medical treatment for this and am very optimistic.” According to Musiala, there is “no further health risk beyond that”.
Medically, absences are brief, sudden lapses of consciousness, usually in the context of an epileptic seizure. They typically last only five to 15 seconds. Those affected stare blankly, fail to respond, then quickly recover – with no memory of the spell. The condition can be controlled with medication.
That clinical description stood in stark contrast to the raw emotion inside the stadium as it unfolded in real time.
A worrying pattern before the Supercup
This was not an isolated scare. Musiala had already collapsed shortly before the end of Saturday’s friendly against RB Leipzig, a 3-1 win for Bayern. He then missed the team presentation at the Campus on Monday, working individually instead. Against that backdrop, his involvement in Heidenheim already felt like a surprise.
Now, with another incident on the books, Bayern’s 4-2 victory automatically slipped into the background. The goals, the combinations, the tactical tweaks – all of it secondary.
The timing is sensitive. On Saturday, Bayern travel to Borussia Dortmund for the Supercup, a first real marker for Kompany’s new era. The focus should be on systems, selection battles, and how quickly this reshaped side can click.
Instead, the central question hangs over Musiala, a player who has already endured more than enough for his age. Just over a year ago, he broke his fibula at the Club World Cup and suffered severe damage to his ankle joint. He returned in January, but has not yet fully rediscovered the explosiveness that once made him Bayern’s great hope between the lines. Immediately after his disappointing World Cup, he had a metal plate removed from his left foot.
Now comes a neurological diagnosis on top of that physical history.
Bayern insist he is receiving the best possible treatment. Musiala himself sounds calm, optimistic, determined to normalise what looks alarming from the outside. The images, though, will linger. And as the season edges closer, one issue will overshadow every tactical debate: how often can one of Europe’s brightest talents keep getting back up?
