The Bundesliga's Reconvalescents

If there were such a thing, the young Bayern defender would be a lock for the Marco Reus Award for Worst Luck with Injuries. Hardly had he come back at the start of this season from almost two years out with cruciate ligament injuries, when he pulled a muscle in his thigh. His return should make Bayern even more dominant - it's almost unfair.

Runner-up for the Marco Reus Award for Worst Luck with Injuries is...Marco Reus. Not only did the Dortmund man miss the World Cup because of a knock picked up in a friendly (!), he also had two lengthy spells out in the Bundesliga. That's one reason Dortmund plummeting into the relegation zone. Jürgen Klopp is praying he stays fit for the second season half.

Dortmund winger and copy editor's nightmare Jakub Blaszczykowski missed nearly a year after blowing out a knee. He made a tentative comeback last December, but after spending so long in rehab, he was understandably quite rusty. The men in yellow-and-black hope he'll recover his old form as they try to salvage something from their season.

The 24-year-old Franfurt keeper, touted as one of the top young talents at his position, suffered a syndesmosis injury in round 5. Perhaps not coinidentally, his team compiled the third worst defensive record in the first season half. Now he's back, and word is that he's looked good in Frankfurt's initial winter-break friendlies.

Want to know how much Hertha Berlin missed central defender Sebastian Langkamp? At this time last year, the capital club were in sixth place with 20 goals conceded. Right now Hertha are in thirteenth, having let in 35, second-worst in the Bundesliga. Langkamp missed almost all of the first season half - not a coincidence.

After moving from Schalke to Mainz last year, defensive midfielder Christoph Moritz gradually established himself in the starting line-up. How unlucky that persistent back problems kept him from seeing any action or doing much real training after round 8. The 24-year-old is making the trip to Mainz's winter training camp and hopes to pick up where he left off in 2015.

If you only scored nine goals in seventeen rounds as Hamburg did, any bit of help is welcome. So the Northern Germans will be cheered by the prospect of forward Maximilian Beister returning to action. The 24-year-old tore pretty much everything there was to tear in his left knee last January. Now he's back and will try to bolster the league's worst offense.

With the Bundesliga relegation battle shaping up to be the tightest ever in history, a few goals could go a long way toward deciding teams' fates. Stuttgart only scored twenty in the first season half, with five coming in one game, so the Southern Germans will be mighty pleased that striker Vedad Ibisevic is back. He already scored in Stuttgart's first winter-break friendly.

And Stuttgart should be getting not one but two strikers back off the injured list. Mo Abdellaoue arrived last season after success in Hanover, but never took off in Southern Germany, partly down because of injuries. He's back in training after cartilage damage kept him from playing a single match this season.