Johan Djourou is closer to the exit door at Hamburg.
The defender is off contract in June and is being linked with West Ham this week. He was also blocked from joining Crystal Palace in January.
However, the Swiss is now set to leave after being critical of coach Markus Gisdol.
Discussing losing the captaincy, Djourou said: "It was at a time when the debates began, whether the coach had to leave. It seemed that the trainer tried to move the problem to another place. So that people had to talk about a topic - so the captain was changed."