Gio Reyna injured in warmups after being scheduled for first Borussia Dortmund start
Seventeen-year-old American Giovanni Reyna was supposed to make his first career start for Borussia Dortmund in Saturday’s highly anticipated Bundesliga return.
Unfortunately, it’ll have to wait a little longer, as Reyna suffered an injury in warmups and was replaced in the lineup by Thorgan Hazard. Dortmund hammered Schalke 4-0, with Hazard scoring in Reyna’s absence.
Gio Reyna will be replaced by Thorgan Hazard in the Starting XI as a result of an injury sustained during warm up 📝
Get well soon, Gio 🙏 pic.twitter.com/V8RoWrO2wx— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) May 16, 2020
Reyna had appeared in all eight of BVB’s games this year — including both legs of its Champions League round of 16 loss to Paris Saint-Germain — before the global coronavirus pandemic stopped sports and most of normal life cold in March.
But he has yet to start a match for the German titans. Reyna, the son of former U.S. men’s national team captain Claudio Reyna and U.S. women’s team winger Danielle Egan, got the initial nod Saturday from manager Lucien Favre for the Revierderby against rival Schalke, arguably the biggest game in the Bundesliga.
The contest has taken on an even greater significance because of the current circumstances. Germany’s top league is the highest-profile sports competition to return to action amid COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, and will be watched far more closely than usual by casual fans around the world as a result. Reyna’s fellow American Weston McKennie got the start for Schalke.
Reyna made his first-team debut for Dortmund in January. He scored his first goal for the club a couple of weeks later, a gorgeous curling strike in a 3-2 German Cup defeat against Werder Bremen.
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