Bender ruled out of Germany qualifier
Reuters - Tuesday 30 August 2011, 11:28
BERLIN - Germany will be without
midfielder Sven Bender when they host Austria in a Euro 2012
qualifier on Friday after he failed to recover from a minor
ankle injury, coach Joachim Low said.
The 22-year-old Borussia Dortmund player has also been ruled
out of his country's September 6 friendly away to Poland.
"He picked up an ankle injury at the weekend and that now
forces him to take a break, so we will have to do without him,"
Low told reporters on Tuesday.
Striker Mario Gomez and attacking midfielder Marco Reus have
already been ruled out with injuries, joining midfielder Sami
Khedira, who has also dropped out.
Germany top qualifying Group A with seven wins out of seven
and a maximum 21 points. A win against the Austrians will see
them through to next year's tournament, which is being co-hosted
by Poland and Ukraine, with two games to spare.
Loew said he would not nominate any other player for his now
reduced 21-man squad.
"So we have 18 in-field player and three goalkeepers. For
these two games it will suffice," Loew said.
VfB Stuttgart striker Cacau has already been called up to
replace Gomez.
LAHM CONTROVERSY
Low, sitting next to smiling Germany captain Philipp Lahm
during the news conference, also said team bosses had talked to
the defender and cleared the air following the publication of
his controversial autobiography.
In his book The Subtle Difference, Bayern Munich captain
Lahm sharply criticises past coaches and players, including
former Germany coach Rudi Voller and his training methods.
The publication of the book that has angered several top
federation officials and coaches who said Lahm was spilling the
beans on internal issues, triggered a Monday evening meeting
between the player, Low and other coaching staff.
"We were confronted with the fallout from this book
non-stop in the past days," Low said. "I personally told
Philipp I do not think it is proper as a current player to judge
coaches in public. You should not do this.
"I think this is unfortunate but we are all of the opinion
that as a whole the book did not reveal any internal issues from
inside the team. I hope the issue for us is now closed and we
can focus on our next tasks, the important ones."
Lahm, who has since apologised for any "misunderstanding"
his book may have caused, said no player on the team had a
problem with what he had said.
"Obviously the last few days were not comfortable. I did not
expect such a reaction. For me it is a great honour to play for
Germany and I have not felt anything from the other players,"
Lahm said.
"The coach told me not to talk about other coaches and I
will not to do this again.
"What we want to focus on now is to seal qualification and
on Friday we have a huge chance at home against Austria to
achieve this.
"It has never happened before that a German team wins all
qualifiers. We will do everything we can on Friday to give the
Austrians no chance."