Vincent Kompany celebrated his return to the sidelines in the Champions League showdown against Arsenal. After several days of forced absence, the Bayern Munich coach was able to personally lead his team again in the 2-2 draw against the London club. Afterward, the 40-year-old spoke openly about his illness and made it clear that the heavy workload of the past few weeks had clearly taken its toll.

Kompany was already feeling under the weather during last weekend’s 6-1 victory over RB Leipzig. The Belgian spent nearly the entire match on the bench and left much of the coaching to his assistant, Aaron Danks.

Afterward, the situation apparently worsened to the point that Kompany had to take a break. The Bayern coach missed both the final training session and the press conference ahead of the Arsenal game.

He didn’t return to the team until Wednesday morning.

Kompany: “My body needed some rest.”

In an interview with DAZN, Kompany spoke in more detail for the first time about his health ahead of the Arsenal match.

At first, however, the Belgian didn’t want to make himself the center of attention. “The coach isn’t that important today. It’s the players. We’re all human. Things can happen. When you catch a virus, it’s just a wake-up call,” explained the 40-year-old.

Kompany then admitted that he may not have paid enough attention to his physical limits in recent weeks. “My body then told me it needed some rest. I’ve been working a lot and sleeping very little.”

These comments show just how intense the past few weeks have apparently been for the Bayern coach as well. In addition to the numerous competitive matches, his responsibilities include daily training sessions, preparing for opponents, and managing the squad.

Kompany emphasized, however, that he’s on the mend: “I’m feeling better. That’s perfectly normal. As a coach, you want to do everything yourself—I didn’t listen to my body, and at some point my body told me, ‘Stop it now, man!’ … That was it. Now I’m feeling better; otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”

Eberl reveals: It was hard to slow Kompany down

Sports director Max Eberl also commented after the game on the Bayern coach’s illness.

According to him, it wasn’t easy at first to convince the ambitious Belgian to take a break. “At one point, he finally said, ‘I have to stay home now.’ It did him good. We hope his condition remains stable,” Eberl explained.

Team officials had deliberately given Kompany some time off in recent days so he could fully recover.

In the match against Arsenal, the 40-year-old was finally noticeably more active than he had been against Leipzig. The Bayern coach appeared more energetic and was once again able to support his team from the sidelines.

Nevertheless, the Munich club is likely to ensure that Kompany doesn’t push himself too hard too soon in the coming days.

After all, an intense schedule awaits the record champions. Following the away game at SC Freiburg, the DFB Cup match against Magdeburg is on the docket. That will be followed by the top Bundesliga clash against Borussia Dortmund.

Kompany is desperately needed during this phase. However, his recent illness has shown that even the success-hungry Bayern coach has to slow down occasionally.

This article was translated into English by AI. You can read the original version here https://fcbinside.de/2026/10/22/zu-viel-stress-beim-fc-bayern-kompany-erklaert-seinen-ausfall/.