Shock and Silence at Signal Iduna Park as Karetsas Collapses
For 23 minutes, it felt like a normal European night at Signal Iduna Park. High tempo, loud crowd, BVB probing Villarreal. Then everything stopped.
Giannis Karetsas, the 18-year-old Greek winger, suddenly sat down on the turf. No duel, no foul, no sign of trouble a second earlier. He had just glided past a defender, released a pass, then raised his arm and called for help.
Within seconds, concern turned into alarm. Paramedics sprinted onto the pitch. Team-mates looked away. The new signing was eventually carried off on a stretcher, in tears, to a heavy, anxious round of applause from the stands.
“When the doctors didn’t look at his legs at all and were only focused on his upper body, it sent a shiver down my spine. We wouldn’t wish something like that on anyone. They were really horrible images that we had to see there,” said Mats Hummels, working as a pundit for Prime Video.
BVB Win Overshadowed by Medical Scare
Dortmund would go on to beat Villarreal 3-2, but the scoreline almost felt secondary. The questions all circled around Karetsas.
Sporting managing director Lars Ricken tried to offer as much clarity as he could after the game, without overstepping the medical process.
The winger, he explained, was taken straight to hospital for detailed checks "to rule everything out in the end. We have to wait and see what the next few days bring," Ricken said.
He did not hide how much the incident had shaken him. "Of course I had been somewhat shocked. They were circulatory problems out of nowhere. There had been no indication of anything," he added.
Sporting director Ole Book stood alongside him in tone and concern. He had gone with Karetsas as he left the stadium.
"I went out with him, but at that moment he was not directly able to speak. We obviously hope that it gets better very, very quickly and that it is nothing serious," Book said.
He stressed again that there had been no warning signs in recent days or weeks. "It came very suddenly. He sat down and was then taken to hospital for further examinations, where he still is now. That obviously dampens the mood considerably."
A Small Relief at Half-Time
As the teams came back out for the second half, there was at least a sliver of good news. BVB announced that the teenager was "doing well under the circumstances". Inside the dressing room, Niko Kovac made sure his players heard that message.
"I told my players that everything is fine. They are worried as well," the coach said. The fear had clearly spread through the squad as quickly as it had through the stadium.
Injury Pile-Up Hits BVB Hard
Even before Karetsas went down, Dortmund’s luck with injuries had been bordering on cruel.
A longer absence for the Greek winger would be another heavy blow. New signing Giannis Konstantelias had already torn his cruciate ligament on his first Bundesliga appearance against HSV on the opening matchday and faces a lengthy spell out.
Dortmund reacted before the transfer window closed, moving swiftly to bring in Ethan Nwaneri on loan from Arsenal as a replacement. On Tuesday night, it was Nwaneri who came on for Karetsas after the shocking incident.
The problems do not stop in attack. At the back, Kovac is already juggling absences. For the clash with Villarreal, he had to do without Nico Schlotterbeck, Emre Can and Filippo Mane, all sidelined.
Ramy Bensebaini remains unavailable as well, still dealing with a rib contusion. He would not have been able to feature against Villarreal anyway, serving a suspension after his second yellow-red card in the 1-4 defeat at Atalanta Bergamo in February.
So Dortmund leave the night with a win on the scoreboard, a growing injury list, and one overriding hope: that the next update on Giannis Karetsas brings more relief than fear.
