After his health scare on Friday, Max Eberl has confirmed Vincent Kompany is doing well but will be absent for a number of weeks.
“First of all, the good news is that he is stable. Obviously, it was a difficult moment for all of us," Eberl said in Bayern Munich's press conference ahead of facing SC Freiburg.
"He collapsed on the pitch yesterday and is now in hospital, where he will remain for a few more days while they establish exactly what happened and carry out all the examinations.
It just goes to show once again that football isn't the most important thing in life. The most important thing is your health. We're all sending Vini our best wishes for a speedy recovery.
"He should only return when he feels fully fit again. And that will be our biggest task: to protect him, to a certain extent, even from himself.”
“Vinnie will be given all the time he needs. We're not starting to build any timeframes. We need to figure out what it is, and then we'll discuss what recovery time means.
We won't be talking about days, but weeks. We all understand that. And we have such a fantastic coaching staff, with Vinnie at its head," Eberl explained.
Battling a virus in the week leading up to the Arsenal game, Eberl was quick to defend the club when asked if Kompany was being made to overwork himself.
“Of course, people can try to find someone to blame, but the fact is that we protect our coach wherever we can. When a coach says, “I feel ready to do things,” we are not in a position to know exactly how he is feeling.
"We cannot simply say, “Okay, we’re not going to allow you to do that.” - We had already held him back for two days. The coaching staff kept him out for two days before the Arsenal game because we knew he had this virus.
"However, he had recovered well and felt fine. At that point, it becomes difficult to tell him, “You’re not allowed to do this.” - He has his own voice, of course, and the right to express himself.
“He wanted to be involved in the game, and everything seemed fine. He felt well. But now this has happened,” Bayern's director of sport concluded.