German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shared a photo of himself wearing an eye patch on Monday, revealing that he had fallen while jogging.

Scholz, an avid jogger, sustained bruises and grazes to the right side of his face.

The playful photo on Monday served to deflect any concerns about his health and sparked a series of pirate jokes online.

“Thanks for the well wishes, it looks worse than it is!” he wrote under the picture on his official account.

“Excited to see the memes,” he added.

Scholz inundated with memes

The photo received thousands of likes and comments shortly after it was posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.

Replies included memes of Scholz with pirates wearing pirate hats and brandishing swords. Others wished the German chancellor a speedy recovery

Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said the photo was released “so that everyone can get used to what he will look like in the next week or two.”

Scholz had to cancel his engagements on Sunday, but the rest of his week was unaffected. He is scheduled to attend a Catholic church event later on Monday and visit the IAA auto show in Munich on Tuesday.