Hiroki Ito suffered a serious injury in Bayern's 3-2 win over St. Pauli on Saturday.
The Japanese centre-back came off the bench in the 58th minute and was forced off injured just over half an hour later.
Bayern played the final minutes of the match with only 10 players, after using all 5 substitutions.
The loss of Ito is like a wake-up call right in the ears of captain Vincent Kompany.
The "Gray Tigers" have previously lost Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano to various injuries.
Upamecano is expected to return at the end of April while Davies appears to be out for the rest of the season. Ito, although set to play as a central defender, can also move to the left wing and play well.
Therefore, with the Japanese star, Kompany will have less headaches in finding someone to patch the void left by Upamecano and Ito.
Hiroki Ito joined Bayern Munich in the summer of 2024 from Vfb Stuttgart under a 4-year contract. During the pre-season, he suffered a broken foot and underwent surgery twice.
Ito was unable to return until before February 12, 2025, in the match against Celtic in the Champions League play-off round.
Max Eberl, a member of the Bayern Board of Directors, in charge of sports, said: " Ito's injury made the team very sad. He has just recovered from many months of treatment and will now be out for a long time. We sympathize with what Ito is feeling at the moment.
He will receive all the necessary support from Bayern Munich. Ito is a very strong warrior and we hope he will return soon".
Hiroki Ito has only played in 8 club matches this season, a total of 282 minutes of play. He will miss a very important part of Bayern's season, including the upcoming Champions League quarter-final against Inter.
Before the Champions League quarter-final against Inter Milan, Kompany currently had only two available centre-backs, Kim Min-jae and Eric Dier. In addition, Bayern have a veteran left-back, Raphael Guerreiro.
However, Guerreiro's safety and skills are considered much inferior to Ito. If it is too much about personnel, Sascha Boey can turn from the right wing to the left wing to play.
However, Boey is currently considered a redundant player and will almost leave this summer. Giving such a player a chance in the Champions League knockout round would be a very risky gamble for Kompany.
Currently, Bayern are leading the Bundesliga with 65 points after 27 matches. They are 6 points ahead of the second-placed Leverkusen. The tournament will end with 9 more rounds, this is enough number of matches for mistakes to occur.
Therefore, Harry Kane and his teammates need to focus fully after being crowned by Leverkusen last season.
