Konstantinos Karetsas was carried off on a stretcher after leaving Borussia Dortmund's Champions League match against Villarreal in the 23rd minute. The summer signing from Genk had sprinted into a counterattack, then slowed, passed the ball to Julian Ryerson and signaled that he could not continue.
For Borussia Dortmund, the change was immediate and jarring. Fans rose to applaud Karetsas as he was taken away, while Lars Ricken and Carsten Cramer were shown looking stunned on TV. It was the kind of scene that turns a routine substitution into a medical worry in a matter of seconds, and it is why the search interest around Borussia Dortmund is focused on one player tonight rather than the result itself.
By halftime, the club said Karetsas had left because of circulatory problems and was on the way to the hospital for further examinations. The update matters because it answers the first question, but not the one that follows: what set off the problem, and how long will he be out? Those details are still missing, and the club's own wording leaves room for caution even as it says Kosta was doing well under the circumstances.
The incident lands at a sensitive moment for Borussia Dortmund. Karetsas had already missed Monday's closing training session for load-management reasons, and the club has been leaning on him as part of its summer business. Ethan Nwaneri came into the match as another new signing, while the backdrop to the evening was already heavy after Giannis Konstantelias suffered a serious knee injury earlier in the season. For now, the only firm next step is the hospital examination, and that will decide whether this was a brief scare or the start of a longer absence.
