Robert Glatzel’s season is over with a calf strain, and he will miss Sunday’s Hamburg Vs Freiburg kickoff at 15.30 on DAZN in a Volksparkstadion that, for the first time in the club’s history, is sold out.
The absence removes HSV’s experienced center-forward — Glatzel, 32 — from a home finale that has taken on extra weight because supporters have turned up in numbers all year. Manager Merlin Polzin said Glatzel’s calf issue, which began in the Hoffenheim match and then worsened, ruled him out: "Da werden wir kein Risiko eingehen." Polzin also made clear Glatzel will not be rushed back.
Polzin’s praise for the crowd was emphatic. After a season of unusually high travel numbers — HSV had averaged 6,788 fans at away games, ahead of Schalke 04’s 6,319 — he called the support "Er war für mich nicht nur erstklassig, sondern absolute Weltspitze," added that it "Das hat mir sehr viel bedeutet, das bedeutet auch der Mannschaft sehr viel," and awarded the fans a "Note 1+ mit Sternchen." That backing has turned the final home match into more than a routine fixture.
Polzin faces selection questions at centre-forward. He pointed to youth as one option, singling out 19‑year‑old Otto Stange as a candidate to replace Glatzel: "Er ist einer der Kandidaten, der infrage kommt, um Glatzel zu ersetzen." Polzin described Stange as having "Sehr viel Potenzial, sehr viel Unbekümmertheit" and said he "hat sich in den vergangenen Monaten extrem weiterentwickelt."
At the other end of the pitch, a separate fitness situation will test the coach’s judgment. Miro Muheim, who suffered a syndesmosis injury in his right ankle in January 2025, trained again on Friday, but Polzin warned: "Für Sonntag wird es eng." The club expects Muheim, 28, to be available for the final in Leverkusen on 16.5, so any Sunday involvement would be cautious and limited by design.
The timing tightens the margin for error. HSV had gone six matches without a win before reversing form in a 2:1 victory over Frankfurt, and the narrative of a sold-out Volksparkstadion confronting the loss of a veteran striker sharpens the stakes for both team and fans. Polzin has repeatedly emphasised prudence with injuries — again on Glatzel he said, "Da werden wir kein Risiko eingehen."
That prudence creates the story’s friction: a club celebrating record attendances while having to ask an inexperienced player to step into the spotlight and counting on a borderline-fit defender to return for the season’s last major fixture. It is a rare alignment of triumph and tension — the stadium at full capacity and a coach balancing short-term needs against long-term availability.
On Sunday, the match will answer two immediate questions: can a young forward fill the gap left by Glatzel, and will Muheim’s late training session translate into any meaningful minutes before the Leverkusen match? Either outcome will shape selection decisions for the final and offer a clearer picture of whether Polzin’s caution over Glatzel and Muheim pays off.
Polzin has framed the club’s next step plainly: protect long-term availability and lean on a fan base he called world-class. That combination — youth thrust forward under the stadium’s full weight and a coach refusing to gamble with fragile fitness — is the most concrete preview of how HSV will try to close the season.
