Borussia Dortmund

Matthias Ginter "thought about retiring" after Borussia Dortmund bomb attack

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 21 June 2017

Matthias Ginter opens up about the ordeal of being caught up in the attempted bomb attack on Borussia Dortmund's team coach, admitting that he thought about retiring.

Borussia Dortmund defender Matthias Ginter has confessed that he contemplated calling time on his playing career after being caught up in the attempted bomb attack on the team's coach.

The German side were targeted ahead of their Champions League meeting with AS Monaco in April, seeing three explosions go off near the vehicle as it made its way to the Westfalenstadion.

Dortmund's coach was left badly damaged and players shaken, with Marc Bartra later requiring surgery on a fractured wrist, and Ginter admits that he initially struggled to come to terms with the ordeal.

"For a moment, I thought about retiring from football altogether," he told German publication Bild. "You can never arm yourself against attacks like this. But I want to keep playing and I will do just that. I will not allow someone to take the thing away from me that I like the most.

"There was a loud bang all of a sudden. Something exploded next to me. There was glass all over the place. We all went to the ground right away. Things could have been much worse had we not had extra strong glass.

"A few weeks after the attack I was taking a walk with my girlfriend and a truck drove by slowly. For a second, I feared for the worst. Trucks have been used in terror attacks before."

Dortmund were controversially made to play their quarter-final first-leg meeting with Monaco 24 hours later, which they went on to lose 3-2.