Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

Lukasz Piszczek out of Borussia Dortmund-Schalke derby clash

Borussia Dortmund's Lukasz Piszczek is out of the Revierderby at home to Schalke after suffering an ankle injury in the 2-1 Champions League defeat away to Juventus.

Poland international Piszczek was substituted by manager Jurgen Klopp in the first half of the round of 16 match on Tuesday after a tackle from behind by France international Paul Pogba.

Dortmund said on their official website that he had suffered a syndesmotic ankle sprain and was expected to be sidelined for six weeks.

His injury is one of a string of headaches for Klopp, with Erik Durm and Kevin Grosskreutz also ruled out and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Shinji Kagawa and Neven Subotic doubts because of injury or illness.

BVB, who are eight points behind Schalke, have won their last three Bundesliga games but have only triumphed in two of the last 15 home league meetings with their rivals -- a 2-0 in November 2011 and a 2-0 win in May 2007 which ended Schalke's hopes of winning their first league title.

Schalke skipper Benedikt Howedes told kicker. "Dortmund are a top team coming out of a difficult time.

"It looks like they have recovered and are playing really well again. But we want to stay up there ourselves, and need those three points."

Schalke also have their share of injury problems, with centre-back Joel Matip, a key member of coach Roberto Di Matteo's 5-3-2 system in recent weeks, the most recent.

"It's a good system for us," centre-back Matija Nastasic, who has impressed since arriving on loan from Manchester City, told Bild.

Schalke are currently fourth in the Bundesliga but are targeting automatic Champions League qualification by finishing third.

"Our goal was and is the third spot, and we can do that," Nastasic said. "The match [against Dortmund] is a big match for us, for the fans, for everyone. But we have to play it like every other match. We want to win every game."

Meanwhile, a 250kg Second World War bomb found during construction work outside the stadium was defused on Thursday, with the BVB news conference relocated to the training ground.

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