Excelsior Rotterdam midfielder Adrian Fein has been diagnosed with a metabolic disease, the club have confirmed. The 24-year-old German has been out of action since January, and with plenty of confusion surrounding his absence, Excelsior have announced today that he’ll be unavailable for the coming months.Â
Fein joined Excelsior from Bayern Munich last summer, having featured 34 times for Bayern’s reserve team. Between 2018 and 2022 Fein endured five separate loan spells with the likes of Jahn Regensburg, Hamburg, Greuther Fürth, Dynamo Dresden and PSV. The former Germany U21 international made eighteen appearances across all competitions for PSV during the 20/21 campaign.Â
This season Fein has made 14 league appearances for Excelsior, who were promoted from the Eerste Divisie last season. A club statement released today read, ‘Excelsior Rotterdam will have to do without Adrian Fein for the foreseeable future. The German midfielder was suffering from symptoms of exhaustion and after extensive research in Germany, it has now emerged that he has a metabolic disease. He will be treated for this in the coming months.’
Excelsior’s technical director, Niels van Duinen, said ‘Adrian noticed earlier this season that he lacked strength, but always tried to keep training intensively. His therapist compares the illness to a car: if there is no petrol in the tank, the engine cannot (continue to) start. His body has now, simply put for everyone, turned off its system, which is why he needs treatment.’ Van Duinen compared Adrian Fein’s situation to one that former PSV and Borussia Dortmund midfielder Mario Götze endured in 2017. ‘Götze had a similar illness. He managed to fully recover from this and return at the very highest level’, Van Duinen said. Fein’s contract at Excelsior runs until mid-2024.
