Hinkel hoping to return

Benfica
SL Benfica coach Giovanni Trapattoni had fresh injury concerns after Saturday's 1-1 draw at CS Marítimo which knocked his side off top spot in the Portuguese SuperLiga. The Italian stuck with the eleven players who finished last week's 4-0 victory against Vitória FC, but after Simão Sabrosa's free-kick had cancelled out an early goal for the home side, Brazilian winger Geovanni had to be withdrawn with a shoulder injury. Worse was to follow when Geovanni's replacement, João Pereira, had to be substituted during the second half with a left thigh strain, ruling him out of the Portugal Under-21 squad to face Luxembourg.

Stuttgart
Portuguese international Fernando Meira returned to the VfB Stuttgart squad for Saturday's trip to Bundesliga leaders VfL Wolfsburg. But the centre-half, who has now recovered from the cruciate knee injury he sustained in August, did not feature in the 3-0 defeat which consigned his team to fourth place in the table. Andreas Hinkel is still out with a hamstring injury, but is expected to return, if not in time to play SC Heerenveen on 25 November, then long before the potential Group G decider against NK Dinamo Zagreb in mid-December.

Dinamo Zagreb
Croatian First League hopefuls NK Varteks had not conceded a goal during their five-match winning streak but were knocked out of their stride by NK Dinamo Zagreb, who followed last week's draw against NK Osijek by defeating Varteks by the odd goal in three. Strikes from Dario Zahora and Hrvoje Štrok, both set up by captain Niko Kranjcar, did the damage for Dinamo, who expect key forward Veldin Karic to return from his left ankle injury in the near future.

Heerenveen
An ingrowing toenail continued to keep striker Victor Sikora out of the Heerenveen side at the weekend. He was missed as his team went down 3-0 at home to SBV Vitesse and slipped to sixth in the Eredivisie standings. Goalkeeper Boy Waterman and Said Bakkati also sat out the game with knee injuries; although Waterman is unlikely to return before the new year, the defender may be available for the visit of Stuttgart later this month.

Beveren
There were no fixtures in the Belgian First Division at the weekend but a depleted KSK Beveren were in action on Wednesday night, Romaric N'Dri returning from a domestic ban to score his side's goal in a 1-1 draw with KSC Lokeren OV. The Belgian club are still without long-term casualties Abdoulaye Diawara (broken ankle) and Moussa Sanogo (heel) but Constant Kipre is back in training as he continues to recover from a torn calf muscle.