John Anthony Brooks is about to make his comeback for Hertha BSC

When Hertha BSC welcomes Darmstadt 98, second in the table in the Second League, to the Olympiastadion this Sunday (1:30 p.m., live on Sky), then Brooks will actually be back. Where it all began. “Jay will be in the squad, for the first time,” announced Stefan Leitl, Hertha’s coach, on Friday morning.

For Brooks, who turned 33 this week, this is the end of a seemingly endless period of suffering. In the summer of 2024, the central defender returned to the club for which he played in his youth and where he made the leap to professional status in 2012. However, he has not played a competitive game for Hertha in almost a year and a half.

Brooks, the former US international, injured his ankle in the first training session after returning to Berlin and missed the entire season as a result. During the preparation in the summer he seemed to be on the right track, made short appearances in the first two test matches and then injured himself again, this time to his calf. After returning to team training, Brooks suffered another setback in the fall that delayed his comeback.

“He has been fully integrated into training for several weeks. The feedback is good. Accordingly, he will be there,” said coach Leitl. “It’s the first step for Jay to get back into the team. We’re trying to give him minutes so he can find his rhythm.”

Having someone like the 1.94 meter tall Brooks on your back isn’t the worst feeling, especially for the duel with Darmstadt. Leitl is expecting a very physical opponent on Sunday who will have four or five players with a body length of 1.90 meters (or more) on the pitch. An opponent who hasn’t lost a league game since the end of October.

The Darmstadt team not only have the best offensive with 34 goals, according to Leitl they have “the best strike duo in the league” with Fraser Hornby (five goals) and Isac Lidberg (twelve). Hertha’s coach said there will be a lot of work to do on defense, “especially on our central defenders.”

There is therefore a lot to be said for the robust Toni Leistner returning to the starting eleven. The veteran was missing from the start of the second half of the season against league leaders Schalke because of his red card suspension, and because the back four offered no cause for criticism in this game, Leitl saw no reason to make personnel changes in the away game at Karlsruher SC.

It’s different against Darmstadt. Right-back Deyovaisio Zeefuik is suspended on Sunday because of his fifth yellow card. Leitl can replace the Dutchman with Julian Eitschberger or move Linus Gechter out of central defense to create space for Leistner in the center.

Pascal Klemens could replace Kevin Sessa

Hertha’s coach is also thinking about a change in the defensive midfield. In Karlsruhe, Kevin Sessa took over the place next to Paul Seguin, who had been made vacant by Kennet Eichhorn’s injury. After his starting eleven debut this season, Leitl confirmed that “he really did a good job”. And yet Hertha’s coach is considering filling Eichhorn’s position against the robust Darmstadt team with Pascal Klemens, a player whose strengths lie more in defense.

A candidate for the starting line-up would actually be Jeremy Dudziak, who, like Brooks, was slowed down by injuries for a long time and came back into focus in the first two games of the second half of the season. After being substituted on, he was an invigorating element against Karlsruhe. Dudziak prepared a great chance for Luca Schuler and scored the goal to make the final score 2-2.

But precisely because Dudziak has worked twice as well as a joker in two appearances, Leitl wants to have him again as a substitute option against Darmstadt. “As a coach, you like to have that much quality on the bench,” he said, “even if a player certainly doesn’t want to hear that.”