WINGER Marco Reus was left out of Germany’s final Euro 2016 squad on his 27th birthday yesterday over injury concerns, missing out on his second consecutive major tournament.
Coach Joachim Loew also cut 20-year-old midfielder Julian Brandt along with his Bayer Leverkusen teammate Karim Bellarabi and defensive midfielder Sebastian Rudy.
Borussia Dortmund’s Reus, who was ruled out of the 2014 World Cup after sustaining an injury in the final warmup game, would struggle to get through a one-month tournament due to long-standing fitness problems, Loew said.
The 27-year-old, considered among the most talented German players of his generation, had another injury-plagued season with Dortmund and went into the German training camp nursing an adductor muscle injury.
“The medical staff could not give a clear prognosis for Marco,” Loew told reporters.
“It is a bitter decision and bitter for Marco,” he added.
The Germans, eyeing their fourth continental title and first since 1996, have been drawn in Group C along with Poland, Ukraine and Northern Ireland for the tournament in France starting on June 10.
Loew kept faith with youngsters Leroy Sane, Julian Weigl and Joshua Kimmich and included captain Bastian Schweinsteiger and defender Mats Hummels even though both are nursing injuries.
Germany lost 1-3 to Slovakia in a friendly last weekend and plays Hungary on Sunday in its final warm-up game.
Meanwhile, strikers Marcus Rashford and Daniel Sturridge made Roy Hodgson’s final 23-man England squad for Euro 2016 yesterday but winger Andros Townsend and midfielders Danny Drinkwater and Fabian Delph were left out.
The injury had forced Liverpool striker Sturridge to miss England’s last two friendlies, including Friday’s win over Australia in Sunderland.
Manchester United’s Rashford, 18, became the youngest player to score on his England debut in the 2-1 win at the Stadium of Light.
Delph pulled out with an injury last week and Ross Barkley was preferred to Drinkwater, a key player in the rise of underdog Leicester City to Premier League champion this season.
Townsend, a natural winger, had been in impressive form towards the end of the season in Newcastle United’s failed bid to avoid relegation but Hodgson kept faith with Raheem Sterling.
England, which faces Portugal tomorrow in its last warm-up match before the 24-team tournament, is in Group B with Russia, Wales and Slovakia.
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