BVB’s Waldemar Anton played through injury in January, Sky reports

A torn muscle fiber could have sidelined Anton, but the 7-caps German international battled on in Black and Yellow with gritted teeth.

Waldemar Anton has revealed that he played through the pain barrier at the tail end of January, Sky Sports Germany reports.

Life at Borussia Dortmund has been far from plain sailing for Anton, who signed from VfB Stuttgart for a fee of €22.5 million euros last summer.

Former head coach Nuri Sahin saw the 28-year-old as a key figurehead in the heart of his defence until thigh problems and flu ruled the Uzbek-born German out of action for periods of the season. 

What was not known however, is that Anton battled through the 2-1 defeat to Bologna in the UEFA Champions League and the 2-2 draw against Werder Bremen with a torn muscle fiber.

The centre-half played through the pain barrier on both occasions so as to not let the club or teammates down.

Anton scored an unfortunate own-goal against his former employers Stuttgart in February. The German international has since been out-of-favour under new boss Niko Kovac. 

Perhaps a return to the starting lineup awaits in the not too distant future given his duel winning ratio of 66.5% leads the way at BVB, and ranks only second to Niklas Sule (94.19%) in pass accuracy with 93.65%.