South Korea coach Hong fumes at Bayern over Kim injury

Kim has pulled out of South Korea's squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Oman and Jordan due to an Achilles problem.

Hong, however, believes Bayern's persistence in playing Kim has made the injury worse.

The defender has not made a Bundesliga appearance in March, though did play in both legs of Bayern's Champions League last-16 tie with Bayer Leverkusen.

"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," a frustrated Hong told reporters.

"Just because a match is important doesn't mean it's right to have Kim on the pitch. There have been warning signs since last year and we were fully aware of them.

"We couldn't keep Kim Min-jae around for these important games because it would run counter to our principles of protecting players. So we've made the decision to rest him."

"He's got problems with his Achilles, which was known already. It's now about managing his workload. We need to make sure we don't overwork him. Hopefully it's not too concerning."#FCBayern #MiaSanMia | #FCUFCB pic.twitter.com/duQJWBDeCb

— FC Bayern (@FCBayernEN) March 14, 2025

Ahead of Bayern's meeting with Union Berlin last week, Vincent Kompany told reporters: "[Kim] has got problems with his Achilles, which was known already. It's now about managing his workload.

"We need to make sure we don't overwork him. Hopefully it's not too concerning."

Kim has made 37 appearances across all competitions for Bayern this term, with all of those being starts.

The former Napoli centre-back leads Bayern's defence for clearances (115), headed clearances (65), duels won (176, level with Dayot Upamecano), aerial duels (169) and aerial duels won (112).

Only Upamecano has attempted (59) or won (36) more tackles than Kim (54 and 32 respectively) among his defensive team-mates, while the 28-year-old also leads the way for interceptions, with 56.