Bayern Munich's defence will have to be overhauled for the visit of lowly St. Pauli on Saturday following injuries to Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano.
The Bundesliga leaders, who face Inter in the Champions League quarter-finals next month, have gone two league games without a win and their lead over second-placed Bayer Leverkusen has been cut to six points.
Bayern lead the way with 62 while reigning champions Leverkusen are on 56 points. Mainz are in third place with 45.
They must reshuffle their rearguard after left-back Davies suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear during Canada's 2-1 win over the United States in the Concacaf Nations League on Sunday.
The 24-year-old will miss the rest of the season in a major blow to Bayern coach Vincent Kompany's plans.
Bayern will also be without centre-back Upamecano for several weeks after he sustained a knee injury during France's Nations League quarter-final triumph over Croatia.
The pair have been crucial to Kompany's high-pressing, quick transition game, with likely replacements Eric Dier, Josip Stanisic or Hiroki Ito lacking their recovery pace.
However Kompany reconfigures his defence, Bayern will want to avoid another home debacle after their 3-2 loss to Bochum last time out at the Allianz Arena, having led 2-0. They followed that up with a 1-1 draw at Union Berlin prior to the international break.
Despite their injury setbacks, Bayern will not budge from their lofty targets, said sporting director Max Eberl.
"The absences of Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano are a big blow for Bayern," Eberl said.
"But our squad is strong enough and will make up for these absences.
"This will bring us even closer together. We have the quality to remain focused on all our major goals this season."
Saturday's game offers Harry Kane an opportunity to make history, having recorded 97 goal involvements (76 goals, 21 assists) in all competitions since joining Bayern. He could become the fastest player on record (since 2008-09) to reach 100 for the Bavarian giants.
Kane has massively outperformed his total of 64.25 expected goals (xG) and has a 24.28% conversion rate from 313 shots since joining Bayern last campaign.
He also averages a goal every 34.7 touches. By comparison, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe scores every 59.3 touches, Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski every 42.4 touches and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah every 67.3.
Kane has had 439 touches in the opposition box while at Bayern. He has scored 71 goals from inside the area (more than any other player in Europe's top five leagues since the start of 2023-24), meaning he averages a goal every 6.2 touches inside the area.
Bayern's chief rivals Leverkusen, who needed a stoppage-time winner to overcome Stuttgart 4-3 on the last matchday, have the chance to pile on the pressure when they host Bochum on Friday.
With 56 points from 26 games, this is Leverkusen’s second-best Bundesliga campaign after they accumulated 70 points last season.
However, the Werkself are six points adrift of first place – since three points for a win was introduced, only Stuttgart in 2006-07 (seven points behind after matchday 26) have ever overturned such a deficit this late on in a Bundesliga season to win the title.
Surprise package Mainz, meanwhile, visit Borussia Dortmund on Sunday, with the hosts languishing in 11th place and at serious risk of missing out on next season's Champions League.
With just six points from his first six Bundesliga games in charge, Niko Kovac has made the worst start of any Dortmund coach since Jurgen Rober in 2007 (who also managed two wins and four losses).
Having collected only 10 points from nine games, this is BVB's worst second half of a Bundesliga campaign since 2007-08 (also 10), and their 35 points after 26 matchdays are their fewest at this stage in 10 years (33 in 2014-15).
Dortmund face Barcelona in their Champions League quarter-final next month.