Musiala’s recent diagnosis is the latest setback in what has been a desperately unlucky period to his highly successful career.
His 2024-25 campaign was ended by injury in early April and, just over a week later, he was involved in a serious traffic accident.
Musiala was still able to return to action two months later to take part in the Fifa Club World Cup but then suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle – in the quarter-final against Paris St-Germain – which ruled him out for 196 days.
The former England Under-21 international then played with a metal plate in his foot from January until the end of this summer’s World Cup in North America, where he made four appearances for Germany.
The plate was removed in July, limiting his ability to train during pre-season.
“Musiala hasn’t been much of a factor in the past 18 months,” said German football expert Constantin Eckner. “He came back for the Club World Cup but suffered a broken leg when he collided with Gianluigi Donnarumma.
“It took him months to recover from that. He just had a metal plate removed from his left foot so he played with that for half a year and had to deal with ankle issues.
“Naturally, his performances left much to be desired. The start to the upcoming season would have been difficult anyway, because he didn’t take part in team training for some time due to the surgery in which the plate was removed. Now, there’s another stumbling block.”
Eckner added Bayern’s £43m summer signing of Morocco attacking midfielder Ismael Saibari was in part to protect against Musiala’s fitness issues.
“Musiala is Bayern’s top earner alongside Harry Kane, but his contribution hasn’t been anywhere close to Kane’s,” he said. “He is still young and things can change again.
“He has a release clause in his contract that could be triggered next summer, but the fee would be in the nine digits. It is unrealistic that any club would be willing to pay that for him at the moment.”