Bundesliga
Willi Orban could miss RB Leipzig's Matchday 20 encounter with Union Berlin on Saturday after being asked to make a potentially life-saving donation of stem cells.
The Hungary international defender has not trained with his teammates since the weekend as he is being prepared to make the donation.
"Of course I was surprised at first when I got the information that I was a possible donor. But I never had any doubts, and I rather wanted to go ahead with the donation immediately," explained Orban. "This is the possibility of saving a human life with very little effort, so there's nothing else to consider. I sincerely hope that my donation can help to fully heal the recipient."
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Orban will be given a number of injections in preparation to make the donation, which will take place on Wednesday. Medical best practice then recommends a rest period of up to ten days.
"Of course it's possible that I'll miss the game against Union - all sporting ambitions in this case are secondary," explained the 30-year-old, who still hopes to maintain his record of having played every single minute of the Bundesliga campaign to date. "Anyone who knows me knows that I will do everything I can to join the team again quickly."
Orban, who joined Leipzig from Kaiserslautern in 2015 and has helped them from Bundesliga 2 to become an established top-flight force, hopes the publicity around his donation will encourage more people to sign up to the German Bone Marrow Donor File (DKMS). "It's really, really simple, I feel very well looked after," he explained. "My example shows that registering makes perfect sense."
Orban's donation comes after Karlsruhe defender Marcel Franke missed his team's Matchday 12 Bundesliga 2 game with Darmstadt after donating stem cells to a blood cancer patient.