Serge Gnabry dropped to Bayern bench after 'amateurish' Paris Fashion Week trip

• Bayern started 2023 with two draws
• Gnabry attended Paris between matches
• Criticised by sporting director Salihamidzic

WHAT HAPPENED? The winger was spotted at the Paris Fashion Week between Bayern's Bundesliga matches against RB Leipzig and Koln, where his side could only muster a 1-1 draw on both occasions. Gnabry was hauled off at half-time in the second match and came under fire from sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic in midweek.

WHAT THEY SAID: “That is amateurish,” Salihamidzic told German news agency dpa. “It’s exactly what I don’t like. It’s not Bayern Munich to go messing around when you have a day off. A day off is meant to be for resting yourself so that you can push on in the next game.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Head coach Julian Nagelsmann is already without first-team goalkeeper and club captain Manuel Neuer due a broken leg sustained in a skiing accident after the World Cup. Despite initially coming out in defence of Gnabry, arguing "he can do whatever he wants in his free time", Nagelsmann has since revealed that he too will spend a time on the sidelines, albeit for one game.

"[Serge Gnabry] had the chance to show a reaction against Koln," the German manager said at a news conference. "Against Koln he was not outstanding so it is clear that this [trip to Paris] is magnified by the media. We had a good chat and I explained him my view of things and I told him the substitution against Koln was not because of the Paris trip but performance-related. We have a player, [Kingsley Coman], on the bench and he has done really well and he will start tomorrow."

IN THREE PHOTOS:

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WHAT NEXT FOR GNABRY? Bayern will therefore be without the 27-year-old - who boasts 21 goal contributions in 2022-23 - against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, with Nagelsmann's side now only three points clear of Union Berlin at the top of the table.