Bayern Munich midfielder Arjen Robben says he will continue to receive treatment from Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt despite the doctor's high-profile exit from the club last week.
Muller-Wohlfahrt and his entire medical team walked out following Bayern's 3-1 defeat at Porto in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal.
The doctor claimed his medical team had been blamed over the loss, for which coach Pep Guardiola had been without a host of key players.
However, Bayern sporting director Matthias Sammer insisted the club did not blame the doctor for the defeat, while CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said that Muller-Wohlfahrt would always be part of the Bayern family.
While Tuesday's 6-1 second-leg victory against Porto pushed the controversy into the background as Bayern reached the semifinals, Robben -- who missed the match after sustaining an abdominal injury four weeks ago -- said after the game that he and many of his teammates will still be working with the doctor.
When asked by ZDF whether he will continue to see Muller-Wohlfahrt, the Netherlands international said: "My relationship with him is super," while a statement to Sky suggested that most of the Bayern players will consult the 72-year-old.
"Every player has a personal relationship with him," Robben continued. "He is a person of trust. He is the best and will remain the best doctor, and I have told him that.
"He will continue to treat me. I trust him 100 percent. It would be suicide [not to]. [The muscle] could break during a sprint, and I'd be out for six months. That would be a mindless decision. The doctors said six weeks, and it's four weeks now."
Rummenigge, who reportedly clashed with Muller-Wohlfahrt and his staff in the dressing room after the defeat at Porto, was mild-mannered in his postgame interviews.
"I was on the phone with Muller-Wohlfahrt yesterday," he said. "It was a good conversation. We have great appreciation for him, both for his professional skills as well as on a human level. He is a significant personality and will always remain part of the Bayern family."
However, Rummenigge did not go into details on what was discussed during the conversation, adding: "There is the medical secret and there is the dressing-room secret, and that's why I want to leave it in the dressing room."
Elsewhere, ARD-Recherche-Redaktion Sport (ARD investigation desk sport) ran a report on a "miracle method" used by Muller-Wohlfahrt to treat muscular injuries.
A press release from the desk said that the former club doctor sent players to therapist Dieter Waibler, where they receive "a special kind of magnetic stimulation."
"Footballers are interested in our methods, because they need to get off the sidelines quickly following injuries. Thus you try to find ways that get you over it swiftly," Waibler said a few days before Muller-Wohlfahrt's resignation.
"At Bayern you might have very good physiotherapists at the Sabener Strasse [the club's training facilities] with a good doctor, Muller-Wohlfahrt. But when it comes to the neural level it gets more difficult to make progress with conventional methods."
Waibler said that the combination of "magnet stimulation, osteopathy and manual therapy with special machines" can heal muscular injuries such as strains or tears up to five times faster than conventional methods.
"With my method, I can patch up a fresh muscle tear within a few hours," he said. "The player can't load his muscle 100 percent immediately, but [can] already begin with light training. Following a muscle tear, as an example, a professional footballer would be ready for his comeback after only two weeks."
Waibler said that Robben had been one of his patients, and that besides the Bayern players, a host of other sport stars and international celebrities have been sent to him by Muller-Wohlfahrt.
"They come here incognito. In fact, they are not allowed to, but they come here regardless. They just fly over, and we see what we can do," he added.
The press release said that Bayern and Muller-Wohlfahrt had not commented on the method of treatment when ARD asked for an interview.