Mats Hummels had a very good reason for cutting holes in his boots at the weekend.
Hummels played the full 90 minutes of Bayern Munich's 3-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the first Der Klassiker of the Bundesliga season.
The Bayern centre-half was not at 100 per cent, although you'd never know it, and eagle-eyed viewers of Saturday's game spotted something interesting about the defender's alteration to his footwear.
Hummels had two large holes sliced out of each boot but the decision was not based on aesthetics.
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Rather, Hummels was struggling with injuries to his toes and didn't want to have pressure against them during the match.
"That has no impact," Hummels said. "Both toes are a bit injured at the moment. It works that way too.
"Maybe that will be a new model being developed."
Goals from Arjen Robben, Robert Lewandowski and David Alaba secured all three points for Bayern before Marc Bartra netted a consolation goal for the hosts in the final few minutes.
The victory sent Bayern six points ahead of third-placed Dortmund in the Bundesliga table thanks to four consecutive victories.
