Chapter 921: The Chosen Emergency Striker

"Wait, what?!" Higo blinked in shock when Waldoch whispered something to him. "Paci-san injured himself by stabbing his toenail into the table?!" He asked; his tone was in disbelief.

After training ended, when Higo asked why the atmosphere was so gloomy, the team’s assistant didn’t hide anything.

"Psst! Don’t say it out loud! The Boss still wants to keep everything under wraps!" The Polish man hissed, quickly covering the boy’s mouth.

"He doesn’t want the media to smell this news and give the opponent an idea of what is going on with us. Still, yes, he injured himself when he was drunk, and now, we lost two of our strikers right two days before the game. You can imagine how stressful the situation among the coaching staff is right now."

Higo just felt the corner of his lips twitching madly, feeling so speechless about the team’s current situation.

"Suffering an injury from stabbing his toenail accidentally... That should be the least cool excuse that could happen for a player, right?" He snorted, finding this situation to be ridiculous. "Still, I can imagine how stressful the situation is. I mean, it is also a coincidence that the one who suffers is just another striker."

"Exactly!" Waldoch nodded, rubbing his forehead in a headache. "We have some backup plans, but not a single one is enough to satisfy the boss. The worst-case scenario, we have to play without a striker in the next game."

Well, when it was explained like that, Higo could understand why the coaching staff was in a foul mood. Still, just like Waldoch said, it was only for one game, so even if the game was turned into a lost cause, it was just one, not changing the team’s situation too much.

Also, with Higo and the team’s defensive line being stronger than ever, even though the frontline failed to score, they could still at least get one point out of the game. While it might not satisfy the supporters and some of the players, it would still be better than not gaining anything at all.

The coaching staff managed to suppress the news for quite a while, but when the team was on the bus and couldn’t find Goncalo Paciencia, the only striker that they could rely on for the next game, questions finally started to fly.

"Boss! Is there something wrong with Paci?" Omar Mascarell, as the captain, asked directly.

"Yes, Boss! I called him yesterday, and it seems that he is tight-lipped about it, only saying that it is a family matter and you know about it." Sead Kolasinac added.

The others also looked at the head coach with a mix of concern and curiosity. After all, Paciencia was the only one they could rely on with Mark Uth being injured, so his lack of presence would hurt the team more than anything else.

At this moment, Frohling’s expression was so dark that everyone couldn’t help but flinch. Hell, even the most senior player, the team’s new assistant, Klass-Jan Hunteelar, didn’t dare to look at his boss straight to the eyes right now, knowing that the man was holding back his anger to the best he could do right now.

No, no one wanted to test how close the coach was to the bottom line right now, so it was better to keep quiet.

After getting his mind calmed down for a moment, Frohling for a moment, Frohling finally took a deep breath and said, "He has already said that he couldn’t come, and I approve this matter. The timing is the worst, yes, but nothing could be done about it. If you want to know what truly happened to him, ask after the game is over. For now, put your concentration on the game first."

Well, even though the explanation was vague, they couldn’t really ask anything else, not wanting to step into the landmine accidentally.

However, the mood also dropped right at that second when they realized that Paciencia would not be there for the team in the next game against Hoffenheim. This was a big blow, because they didn’t have any decent backup for the frontline anymore.

Now, everyone had the same question here: ’Who will be their main striker tomorrow?’

Their question got answered quickly during the pitch test, when Suat Serdar came onto the pitch as the main player. This made some of the guys groan secretly, which was easy to notice by Suat Serdar himself, who felt insulted for this reaction.

"What? You think I am not good enough?!" The man glared fiercely at those players, especially the youngsters.

"W—What?! Of course, no!" One of the guys defended himself quickly.

Still, that was a big lie, and everyone knew about it.

Honestly, the decision to pick Suat Serdar was quite decent, especially since the man himself was the team’s top scorer last year. However, that was a year ago, when the team completely relied on him.

If Frohling had a better option, there was no way in hell the man could stay this season, what with him failing to maintain the best fitness to play in a long competition. Hell, the beer belly that he had from the COVID break was still there, and his run was no longer sharp nor threatening like how he did in the past.

Then, combined with the fact that Suat Serdar himself hadn’t played that much this season, only a few games coming off the bench, people had a valid reason to doubt him. If only the team had a better option right now, they would even complain directly to the head coach, thinking that the man had just lost his mind here.

Unfortunately, they had to accept the reality, knowing that they were in the worst-case scenario right now.

The players looked at each other in quiet helplessness before, in the end, they just had to accept this situation for one game. Inwardly, they all had a similar thought: ’Well, maybe it wouldn’t be that bad, right?’