BVB Victory Overshadowed by Karetsas Health Scare
Signal Iduna Park fell silent after 23 minutes. The ball had already gone, the attack had moved on, but Paris Brunner Karetsas suddenly stopped, sat down on the turf and raised his arm. No duel, no collision, no obvious cause. One moment he was dribbling and slipping a routine pass, the next he was calling for help.
Medical staff sprinted onto the pitch. Paramedics followed. The new Borussia Dortmund signing lay on his back, clearly in distress, before being carried off on a stretcher in tears, the crowd rising to applaud him in a mixture of concern and disbelief.
From the stands and on television, one detail made the scene even more unsettling.
"When the doctors didn’t look at his legs at all and were only focused on his upper body, it sent a shiver down my spine. We wouldn’t wish something like that on anyone. They were really horrible images that we had to see there," said Dortmund legend Mats Hummels, working as a pundit on Prime Video.
Fear, shock and waiting for answers
Inside the club, the mood after the 3-2 win over Villarreal was anything but celebratory. Sporting managing director Lars Ricken spoke of a night that had suddenly turned heavy.
The Greek winger was taken straight to hospital. "To rule everything out in the end. We have to wait and see what the next few days bring," Ricken said. He admitted he had "of course been somewhat shocked. They were circulatory problems out of nowhere. There had been no indication of anything."
Dortmund sporting director Ole Book described the same sense of helplessness.
"I went out with him, but at that moment he was not directly able to speak. We obviously hope that it gets better very, very quickly and that it is nothing serious," he said.
Book stressed that nothing had pointed to an issue beforehand. "It came very suddenly. He sat down and was then taken to hospital for further examinations, where he still is now. That obviously dampens the mood considerably."
The images on the big screen had already told that story. A stadium that usually feeds off noise and colour was reduced to an anxious murmur as Karetsas disappeared down the tunnel.
A small relief at half-time
By the break, there was at least a cautious update. At the start of the second half, BVB announced that the 18-year-old was "doing well under the circumstances". Niko Kovac made sure his players heard it before they went back out.
"I told my players that everything is fine. They are worried as well," the coach said.
The relief was real, but fragile. No diagnosis yet, no green light, just the hope that the scare remains exactly that.
Injury crisis deepens
Even before this incident, Dortmund’s luck with new signings had been brutal. A longer absence for Karetsas would hit hard.
Giannis Konstantelias, another fresh arrival, had already torn his cruciate ligament on his very first Bundesliga appearance against HSV on the opening matchday. He will be out for a long time. BVB reacted late in the window, bringing in Ethan Nwaneri on loan from Arsenal as cover. On Tuesday night, it was Nwaneri who came on for Karetsas.
The problems at the back are mounting as well. For the clash with Villarreal, Kovac had to do without Nico Schlotterbeck, Emre Can and Filippo Mane, all missing through injury. Ramy Bensebaini is still struggling with a rib contusion and would not have been available anyway because of his second yellow-red card from the 1-4 defeat at Atalanta Bergamo in February.
Dortmund have their win. They have goals, momentum, a noisy stadium behind them. But as long as Karetsas lies in a hospital bed and the doctors are still "ruling everything out", one question hangs over the start of their season: how many more blows can this squad absorb?
