Niklas Süle is back!

The 2024/25 campaign has been another up-and-down season in a career of highs and lows for Süle, who turns 30 next September. Since leaving Hoffenheim for Bayern Munich in summer 2017, the powerfully built centre-back has tallied 30 appearances in a league season just once - 31 under Kovač at Bayern in 2018/19. He has totalled 64 Bundesliga games for Dortmund in the last three seasons, 29 coming in his first at Signal Iduna Park, with frequently the treatment room rather than the training pitch his place of work.

After starting the first four league games of 2024/25 under Nuri Şahin, Süle featured in just five more before re-finding the form that has won him 49 Germany caps as part of Dortmund's backline in the last three league matches.

Not that Kovač would have had any qualms about bringing Süle back following Nico Schlotterbeck's season-ending knee injury. When he stepped into the role vacated by Şahin in late January, Kovač called Süle "a player for the 2026 World Cup" in his very first press conference. Quite a statement of support for a man who last featured for his country in October 2023 in the infancy of Julian Nagelsmann's tenure as Germany boss.

"In Munich, Niki was a regular with me. He always played actually," said Kovač, who was Bayern boss between summer 2018 and November 2019, and who deployed Süle in all but three of 42 possible Bundesliga games before the big defender suffered a cruciate ligament injury in October 2019. "He has outstanding talent. He's fast, technically strong, and has great vision. When he's fit, he's one of Germany's best central defenders!"

Süle has rarely looked that since his time at Bayern, and again this season he has struggled to master both his imposing physique and form. He was sidelined early in the 2024/25 campaign with an ankle injury that caused him to miss five games. He returned for two matches only to suffer the same injury again, sidelining him for another seven league outings.

That gave Schlotterbeck and Emre Can the chance to further reinforce their central defensive partnership in a back two or with Waldemar Anton in a back three, all of which kept Süle waiting.

"It's not easy for him to get into a centre-back role," acknowledged Kovač who brought Süle back for his first game in over two months as a right-back in the disappointing Matchday 22 defeat to Bochum in February.

"It wasn't an easy time for me," said Süle, who will have just 12 months left on his Dortmund contract this summer. "Sometimes as a professional you have to hold your tongue and hang in there. I'm not the kind of person to put my head in the sand. I always go forward."

His hulking 6'4" frame certainly has taken giant strides in the right direction in his last four Bundesliga appearances. With Süle imperious, Dortmund have taken 10 of a possible 12 points, significantly boosting their ambitions of a top-four finish and a return to the UEFA Champions League next season.

The 2023/24 Champions League runners-up's European adventure stopped at the quarter-final stage this term as they were beaten by former BVB man Robert Lewandowski's Barcelona. After an 11-minute cameo in the 4-0 first-leg drubbing in Catalonia, Süle played the full game as Dortmund ran a remarkable remontada close with a superb 3-1 second-leg victory in Germany.

"I have not played so many games for Borussia Dortmund in which we have stood and fought for each other so much," said Süle after his first Champions League start since mid-October 2024. He was then asked why the team had been unable to reproduce that performance on a regular basis. "I can't answer that question," came the reply, which is almost certainly what he would say when asked to explain his own rollercoaster career.

After the interview, German TV pundit and FIFA World Cup 2014 winner Christoph Kramer said, "I really hope he stays free from injury for a season." Kovač, Dortmund fans and no doubt Süle himself will be hoping it is the next one, especially with the prospect of the World Cup at the end of it.