On Saturday, Dikeni Salifou celebrated his season debut for the SV Werder Bremen U23s. So far, the summer new signing has been injured, now the Bundesliga club wants to slowly build up the youngster in the reserve.

Dikene Salifou left FC Augsburg's youth department for SV Werder Bremen in the summer. There, the defensive midfielder should succeed in making the leap into professional football; Werder plans to have the youngster firmly in the squad, but his first steps in green and white could hardly have gone any worse for the 19-year-old. Salifou promptly got injured and missed most of the pre-season and the first few weeks and months of the season with a torn muscle fibre. On Saturday, the Togo native was finally allowed to play for his new club in a competitive game: Salifou could play 45 minutes for the U23s in the regional league.

"We're happy that he's fit again and can play again," said Clemens Fritz, head of professional football at SV Werder Bremen, afterwards to the DeichStube. "It's important for him now to gain match practice and gain the necessary stability and security from it. In the coming weeks, that will first be done via the U23s. You mustn't forget that he was injured for a long time. We want him to do that give the necessary time." Accordingly, Salifou's debut for the Werder professionals is likely to be postponed, probably to the new year. For the moment, however, the good news is that the youngster is ready for action again and is taking his first actual steps on the Osterdeich.

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This article was originally published on 90min.com/de as Debut in the U23: Werder Bremen wants to slowly build up new summer signing Salifou.