Benjamin Henrichs was enjoying his 100th league game since signing permanently for RB Leipzig against Bayern Munich when it happened.
It was five days before Christmas. The full-back went down clutching the back of his heel and that was it – his season was over before the halfway point, despite Henrichs having never really picked up a serious injury before.
Three months into his recovery, Henrichs has produced a documentary on returning back stronger than ever, entitled Faith Over Fear. Now, sitting down with FourFourTwo, he tells us that he underrated quite how serious the injury was.
Benjamin Henrichs left RB Leipzig to go and train at Red Bull's APC
“There was a bang,” Henrichs recalls. “When you’re in the stadium, there are 70,000 people and they’re screaming.
“To hear your own body in that moment was a real shock in that moment. I heard it and that’s something I’ve never experienced before. I was able to move my toes so I thought, ‘OK, it’s not that bad,’ and I showed the doctor. But I couldn’t do anything.”
Not having football was a shock to the system, too, with Henrichs able to partake in birthday parties for the first time in his career. The routine of training and playing was replaced by a routine of recovery, as he swapped East Germany for a change of scene.
Henrichs went out to Red Bull's Athlete Performance Centre in Salzburg. Rather than sitting in a room while his team-mates trained outside, the German was able to mix with other athletes in his recovery. It's helped keep his focus fresh as he looks to get back to the pitch.
“The advantage of APC is that you see athletes from Red Bull, so I was training with handball players and breakdancers from the Olympics, he says. “So you get all kinds of sportspeople from all over and you train together. You get to see something else, you have a different mindset.
“Obviously, when you’re back in the dressing room with the boys, you’re focusing on football-related things.”
Henrichs is a big voice in the dressing room and he's missed for his ability to speak English, German and French. A glue for the younger players to bond together, Leipzig have missed his leadership this season – especially as he's tried to isolate himself while getting better.
“I decided: we have two gyms here, one is upstairs next to the dressing room and the other is downstairs” he tells us now. “I need to focus and not see how the other guys are doing when they come back from training.
“Before and after training, I’m in the dressing room so I’m with the guys, but when it comes to training itself, I want to focus on myself.”
Henrichs was ruled out for the season following injury in December but with Ridle Baku coming in during January to help cover, Henrichs has the time and space to get better at his own speed. With a World Cup to look forward to in 2026, that seems to be the long-term aim, at least, for a defender who will surely be in Julian Nagelsmann's thinking, should he recover well.
Right now, the goals are smaller. Henrichs has started walking without crutches and was present at Leipzig's win against Dortmund at the weekend: a valuable presence for the team, whether he plays or not.
Henrichs has been reading more in his time away from football. This documentary, too, will be catharsis: he says he still gets “goosebumps” when he sees similar injuries on TV.
“I just wanted to show people that there are setbacks, moments where you are not always happy,” he says now. Even in the world of professional sport, Henrichs has shown that vulnerability can be harnessed as strength.
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