RN Report: Illness leaves four BVB defenders unable to face Leverkusen

Westphalia's Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper reports that illness will keep no fewer than four Borussia Dortmund players out of action this evening at the BayArena. 

Nuri Sahin.

Luciano Lima, Getty Images

As is always the case when Borussia Dortmund prepare to play an away fixture, the local "Ruhr Nachrichten" keeps close tabs on which players are boarding the BVB bus. The Westphalian news source reports that Nico Schlotterbeck, Emré Can, Waldemar Anton, and Ramy Bensebaini are all remaining behind.

It must be emphasized that such reports have been wrong in the past. If true, however, BVB trainer Nuri Sahin has only one starter in his preferred back-four (Julian Ryerson) available. Niklas Süle remains unavailable due to a syndemosis tear suffered last year.  

One assumes that Ryerson will slide over to the left fullback position whilst Yan Couto stars on the right. Assuming that Sahin wishes to stick with a back-four, BVB II players Yannik Lührs and Almugera Kabar could start in central defense.