Former Borussia Dortmund defender Niklas Sule has returned to football just three months after retiring from the professional game. Sule, 30, announced that he was bringing his playing career to an end back in May due to a third serious knee injury of his career, having previously ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament twice.However, he has been surprisingly spotted lacing his boots back up in the ninth tier of German football.The ex-Germany international made his debut for SV Tiefenbach in the midfield, rather than the centre-back role Dortmund fans were used to seeing him deployed in for four seasons.Sule, who won the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2020, marked his first appearance for the club with a goal, towering highest to head into the back of the net. However, his maiden goal for the club was not enough to prevent them from a 7-2 drubbing at the hands of SG Kirchardt in the opening weekend of their district league. Niklas Sule has been spotteed playing in the ninth tier of German football despite being retired The 30-year-old announced his retirement from the professional game back in May ‘I think he’s enjoying it more playing a bit more offensively now,’ Coach Jason Walzel told Badische Neueste Nachrichten. ‘He was there on Saturday and then again on Thursday and Friday.’I don’t think it was planned that he would one day actually play in the Kreisliga. The boys are happy; he’s a great guy.’Sule decided his time at the top level was up when he believed he had torn his ACL for the third time in his 13-year professional career.He went down with what looked like a serious knee problem during Dortmund’s 3-2 Bundesliga victory over Heidenheim in February, and following tests with the doctor in the dressing room he ‘really thought it’s torn’.However, he escaped another ACL tear and, in that moment, decided that when his Dortmund contract expired, that would be that for his time performing at the highest level. Speaking to the ‘Spielmacher’ podcast: ‘What I felt when our team doctor did the drawer test [a test used to check for a possible ligament tear] in the dressing room in Hoffenheim, looked at the physio and shook his head, and the physio did it too and didn’t feel any resistance either.’I went into the shower and cried for ten minutes. In that moment, I really thought: “It’s torn”.’When I went for an MRI the next day and received the good news [that it wasn’t a cruciate ligament tear after all], it was one thousand per cent clear to me that it was over. Sule marked his return with a debut goal for SV Tiefenbach and played in midfield Sule (third from left) won the Champions league with Bayern Munich back in 2020 ‘I couldn’t imagine anything worse than looking forward to life – being independent, going on holiday, spending time with my children – only to then have to come to terms with my third cruciate ligament tear.’Sule started his career at Hoffenheim before moving to Bayern Munich in 2017, where he won five Bundesliga titles in addition to their European triumph over Paris Saint-Germain six years ago. He made 300 appearances in the Bundesliga, with 78 of those coming in yellow during his four years in Dortmund. Sule was also capped a total of 49 times for his country, scoring once.