Sanches sidelined for four weeks

Bayern Munich’s injured star signing Renato Sanches will miss the next four weeks, including the start of the new Bundesliga season and Sunday’s German Super Cup final, the club confirmed Monday.

Having cost Bayern 35 million euros ($38 million) from Benfica, the 18-year-old Portugal international was only introduced in the famous red shirt in Munich on Saturday.

“The atmosphere here is like it is in Benfica. I am already a Bayern fan,” he told reporters.

But an injury in training 24 hours later means he will miss both Sunday’s German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund, plus the first league match of the season at home to Werder Bremen on August 26.

He is expected to sit out the next month having aggravated a thigh injury he picked up in the Euro 2016 final against France last month.

But Sanches has already made a strong impression on his Bayern team-mates in the few training sessions he has completed in Munich.

“Physically, he is unbelievably strong,” said Bayern captain Philipp Lahm.

“He is a very robust player, very strong in his running and he can tear things up here.”

Sanches is hailed as Portugal’s star of the future, with the rags-to-riches teenager’s equaliser for Portugal in their Euro 2016 quarter-final win over Poland helping put them in the semi-finals as they won the penalty shootout 5-3 in Marseille.

His goal meant Sanches broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s record as the youngest ever scorer in the knockout stages of the European Championship.