Stevens: We're determined to keep third place

The Royal Blues have major selection concerns ahead of Sunday's trip to FC Augsburg (1530 CET). "Unfortunately the situation hasn't improved, " said Huub Stevens at today's pre-match press conference. "We'll have to wait and see who's available at Augsburg." Huub Stevens: We're determined to keep third place.|Copyright: firo sportphotoLars Unnerstall, Ciprian Marica, Sergio Escudero and Jefferson Farfan missed training again on Thursday due to viral infection, while Julian Draxler (thigh) trained away from the rest of the squad. It remains to be seen whether they will be fit enough to travel to Augsburg. Stevens said: "Obviously we're hoping that some of them will be back in time." On a positive note, Teemu Pukki and Peer Kluge have both resumed full training. Kyriakos Papadopoulos is definitely ruled out due to an adductor injury and Stevens will also be without Christian Fuchs, who is serving a one-match ban. In spite of all the question marks the Schalke coach has a clear objective against the promoted side: "We're determined to keep third place," he said. To do so, the Royal Blues need to take all three points against Augsburg, who in turn could take a giant step towards Bundesliga safety with a win. "It's going to be very difficult game. Augsburg have qualities of their own and we'll have to set ourselves up accordingly in light of our selection problems," said Stevens.