Donovan's Situation At Bayern Looking Up?

We've all had our questions about how Landon Donovan will fit into the scheme at Bayern Munich when his loan starts in January and the picture may be getting clearer. As it turns out, an unfortunate injury to Stuttgart striker Mario Gomez, who tore a muscle in 2-0 win over Schalke last weekend (in which he scored), may end up impacting Donovan's playing time at Bayern.

The Munich giants have had their eye on Gomez for some time and the word in town was that the club would pick him up in January and simultaneously dish off Lukas Podolski to his old club, 1FC Koeln. Now, its not clear if Gomez will be in any kind of condition for a January transfer so the Donovan loan is looking more like a prudent move and less like an experiment. Depending on Gomez' condition, Bayern (not to mention Real Madrid), may now need to wait until the summer transfer window, soon after Donovan heads back to LA.

What this means for Donovan is that he'll more likely spend his loan period in the striker rotation behind Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose (who will likely need some rest during Champions League weeks). If Gomez had entered the mix, Donovan would have quickly found himself as the number four striker in the mix, provided he continued to outshine Lukas Podolski in practice. So, if Donovan shows up ready to play, he stands a good chance of getting some meaningful playing time. We'll see.