When Borussia Monchengladbach suffered a 3-1 away loss to Hamburger SV last Friday, Kevin Diks (30) came off the bench shortly after halftime. Ko Itakura (29) had just received two yellow cards, resulting in a red, and the Borussia Monchengladbach vice-captain needed to fill the gap in the three-man defense. Having recently become a father, Kevin Diks had previously missed the Bundesliga away match against Stuttgart (3-2), the match against Paderborn (0-0), and the DFB-Pokal match against Karlsruher SC (2-0).
This week, Kevin Diks also returned to Borussia Monchengladbach's training ground. Although Indonesia will play an international match against Jordan on November 13, and the Borussia Monchengladbach player was originally the national team captain, Kevin Diks voluntarily declined the national team call-up this time. He hopes to fully prepare for Borussia Monchengladbach's upcoming matches and the game against Borussia Dortmund after the international break, following his time off and a minor Achilles tendon discomfort. Coach Alexander Blessin revealed that the club also wanted him to stay – even though, according to FIFA regulations, the club could not refuse to release him. The Borussia Monchengladbach coach said: "We have already communicated about this. Kevin certainly has a great influence and maintains good contact with the national team coach. If they say 'Okay, no problem,' then it's a win-win. Especially now that we have injured players and players playing with injuries, this makes a lot of sense."
For the Bundesliga match against Borussia Dortmund, Kevin Diks will once again replace Ko Itakura as Borussia Monchengladbach's defensive core. The Japanese international proved again in the loss to Hamburger SV that he is currently a risk point in Borussia Monchengladbach's defense – his unnecessary two yellow cards, leading to a red, severely weakened the team. Furthermore, unlike Kevin Diks, Ko Itakura will join the preparations for the match against Borussia Dortmund later: he will also play two national team matches with Japan against Brazil and Paraguay in Singapore.