Geneva: Juergen Klinsmann has hinted strongly that Michael Ballack will miss Germany's penultimate World Cup warm-up against Japan on Tuesday.
"We'll talk to the doctor and see if he can play, or if it's better to wait two or three days," Klinsmann said at a news conference on Monday.
"But in no circumstances will we take a risk." Ballack suffered what was thought to be just a minor ankle strain in a training match last Thursday but it was sufficiently painful for him to miss Saturday's 7-0 win over Luxembourg in Freiburg.
He was due to return to at least light training on Monday but time is running out for him to play the Japan game in Leverkusen.
Germany play the opening match of the World Cup against Costa Rica in Munich on June 9 and also face Poland and Ecuador in Group A.
Their final international match before the World Cup is against Colombia in Moenchengladbach on June 2.
Central defender Robert Huth is also doubtful for the match against Japan because of an ankle problem while Philipp Lahm is still recovering from an elbow injury and will not be fit in time, Klinsmann said.
Despite those troubles, the coach is satisfied with the way the training camps in Sardinia and Switzerland have gone.
"You can see we've done a lot of work with the players on tactics and fitness," Klinsmann said. "It's all worked very well."
Germany will leave their Swiss base on Tuesday morning and set up camp in Duesseldorf between the two international dates.
After a couple of days off, the hosts move into their base for the tournament in Berlin on June 5.
Comments
0 comment