South Korea coach slams Bayern for failing to "properly protect" Kim Min-jae | OneFootball

Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany announced on Friday that Kim Min-jae will be sidelined for weeks with a persistent Achilles tendon problem.

That means South Korea will be without one of their most important players when they continue their World Cup qualifying campaign against Oman and Jordan this month.

South Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo believes Bayern Munich could have done more to prevent Kim's injury, pointing out that the 28-year-old played through pain for some time before being ruled out.

According to Hong, there had been "warning signs" of the injury since last year, which he and the national team staff were well aware of.

“Unfortunately, Bayern Munich did not properly protect the player to prevent injury. So we've ended up in a situation where we have to play these important matches without a key player,” said Hong, according to Yonhap News Agency.

"Just because we have important matches coming up, we couldn't keep Kim Min-jae around for them because it would run counter to our principles of protecting players. So we've made the decision to rest him."