Picture Credit: Twitter
The German football team is set to miss another big name for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The player is Borrusia Dortmund's captain Marco Reus, who suffered an ankle injury as reported by Sky Germany. This will be the second World Cup missed by Reus as he was sidelined from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where the Germans lifted the trophy.
This injury also ensures that Reus misses three out of the last four major tournaments played by the Die Mannschaft. The Dortmund skipper picked up this ankle injury during the Revierderby in September. But reports stated that the midfielder was recovering well and came back far earlier than expected against Union Berlin on 16 October.
But in the next few games, Reus reaggravated his injury and will now be sidelined from the marquee tournament. The 33-year-old has only managed 48 appearances for the German national team in his injury-riddled career.
Reus has hence only managed to play in two major international tournaments - the 2012 Euros and the 2018 World Cup and on each of these occasions Germany had disappointing results. The Die Nationalelf will also be missing another key attacking player in RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner, who tore the syndesmosis ligament in his left ankle during the Champions League fixture against Shakhtar Donetsk in early November.
The club made a statement addressing how Werner has torn the syndesmosis ligament in his left ankle and hence will be out till the end of the year. The statement said, “Timo Werner suffered an ankle injury last night in the win over Shakhtar Donetsk. Scans today in Leipzig showed that he has unfortunately torn the syndesmosis ligament in his left ankle and will therefore be out for the rest of 2022.”
With these injuries, Germany manager Hansi Flick has a major problem regarding possible forwards for the World Cup. Currently, Flick has players like Kai Havertz, Lukas Nmecha and Karim Adeyemi, plus uncapped duo Youssoufa Moukoko and Niclas Füllkrug as a possible replacement for the number nine position.
