German coach Rudi Voller has suffered another serious blow to his side's World Cup chances as defender Jens Nowotny will miss the tournament with torn knee ligaments.
The Bayer Leverkusen player picked up the injury in his side's Champions League semi-final win over Manchester United on Tuesday night. He could miss six months with the injury which he sustained in a fairly innocuous challenge.
Nowotny is the second key player to become unavailable to the German management after Bayern Munich's Mehmet Scholl earlier ruled himself out with injury problems.
The influential duo of Sebastien Deisler and Michael Ballack have also had injury concerns lately, although both should be available for Japan.
There is one more round of Bundesliga games to be played before the squad is finalized. Bayer also have to play Real Madrid in the Champions League final and Voller will be hoping that no more injuries are sustained by his more experienced pros.
Germany face Ireland in the second of their Group E matches in the World Cup in June.
[a2zsoccer.com]
03/05/2002, 5:28 PM
The Legend
Someone should send the knee cappers around to Ballacks house!
