Schalke winger Yevhen Konoplyanka should be paying closer attention to the station announcements with his club set to travel by train to Wolfsburg for a Bundesliga game on Saturday.
When Schalke last faced Wolfsburg away from home in November 2016, the Ukraine international was nowhere to be seen when his squad departed the train.
"Just like in a Kindergarten, we were counting the players on the platform, and one was missing," Schalke sporting executive Christian Heidel told reporters on Thursday.
While Heidel could not remember why nobody had alerted the winger, he explained that he then had to make the 220 km trip from Berlin to Wolfsburg "in a taxi."
Wolfsburg, the home to automobile manufacturer Volkswagen, has had its fair share of problems with German rail. The high-speed ICE trains travelling to and from Berlin have passed the city's main station without making scheduled stops on numerous occasions, including three times in 2017.
Konoplyanka couldn't use that as an excuse, of course, and the following day, then-coach Markus Weinzierl gave the winger a bit more rest, leaving him on the bench for Schalke's 1-0 victory.
