Sebastien Haller named on the bench for Dortmund's friendly with Fortuna Dusseldorf

Sebastien Haller has been named on the bench for Borussia Dortmund's friendly against Fortuna Dusseldorf just six months after being diagnosed with testicular tumour.

If Haller gets any game time, it will be the first time that he has played for Dortmund since his £31m move from Ajax last July.

Less than two weeks after joining Dortmund, Haller fell unwell in training, before it was confirmed that he had a tumour.

Having been through treatment, Haller has made remarkable progress, and is now back with the Dortmund squad for their clash with Dusseldorf

Haller has also opened up on his journey since first being diagnosed with a tumour, and has explained that telling his children about his situation was the hardest moment for him.

'I first discussed with my wife how best to explain it to our children,' Haller told Bild.  

'We looked online for tips and asked other people. We then found a way and explained it to them with a small video.

'The hardest part was getting them to understand that while I'm fine right now, I'm sick and need to be hospitalised - even for a few weeks or months. 

'We wanted to be honest, the kids are smart and have good senses themselves, so we didn't want to try to hide anything from them.

'Luckily they took it well, I laughed a lot at home, played a lot with them. In the beginning it wasn't like usual, of course – my older son often wanted to jump on me, so I had to tell him: 'not yet'. But now everything is fine.'

'I knew immediately: I have no other choice. The choices are limited. It won't do you any good if you put yourself in a depression,' Haller added.

'So I said to myself: stay positive, bring your family and friends together. You're not alone. So go through it together with them.

'When I got home, my wife had prepared a few small posters with the news from my family. Mum, dad, brother, sister.

'That was actually the most emotional thing. But there was also an incredible amount of uplifting news from the football world, I can't even list everyone.

'The president of Ivory Coast was there, my former clubs and of course a lot of players, Luka Jovic and Ante Rebic also wrote to me which made me happy.'

Comments