Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has suffered a muscle injury which rules him out of upcoming Germany friendlies against France and the Netherlands which were to mark his return to the team after missing all 2023 games.
"Manuel Neuer has left the squad early due to a torn muscle fibre in his left adductor muscle and will miss the two upcoming international matches. He suffered the injury in training in the morning," the national federation DFB said on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
Neuer, 37, was returning to the squad after missing all games last year due to a lower leg fracture. His last Germany matches were at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Barcelona's Marc-Andre ter Stegen is now expected to be between the posts for the games on Saturday in Lyon against France and three days later against the Dutch in Frankfurt.
It was not clear immediately how long Neuer will be sidelined but he is also set to miss matches at Bayern Munich in the closing stage of the season, with Bayern second in the Bundesliga and in the Champions League quarter-finals against Arsenal in April.
The injury came amid speculation that Neuer was to be given first choice status by coach Julian Nagelsmann for the friendlies and Euro 2024 in Germany, according to dpa sources.
Nagelsmann had said he would talk to all players about their planned role on Monday and Tuesday.
There has so far been no official confirmation but the issue may arise later Wednesday in a fan talk with Nagelsmann, despite the injury news.
Neuer has been Germany's number one at all World Cups and Euros since 2010 and has won 117 caps, with 49 clean sheets and only 19 defeats.
Ter Stegen has been a national team rival since 2012 and has 38 caps. The 31-year-old had hoped to finally be named first choice for the home Euros.
Neuer won the 2014 World Cup while ter Stegen won the 2017 Confederations Cup with a young team without Neuer and many others.
Nagelsmann has meanwhile also said that Real Madrid's Antonio Rüdiger and Jonathan Tah will be his centre backs in the friendlies, and also at the Euros if they do well.
The decision, after experiments with other players and the likes of Mats Hummels and Niklas Süle now dropped, was welcomed by Rüdiger on Wednesday.
"You can deal with each other in a completely different way during training and have different conversations," Rüdiger said.
The 66-times capped defender praised Tah as "outstanding" and said there is "no better player in the Bundesliga" in this position at the moment.
Rüdiger said that Nagelsmann has told him to be a leader at the back and he pledged that the team will show "a reaction concerning the basics" from a poor 2023 with just three victories from 11 games and defeats against Turkey and Austria in the final two games.
"We can talk about tactics and everything but there must be a readiness. And of course a result," he said.
Germany also underperformed in group stage exits at the last two World Cup and a last 16 elimination at the last Euros but Rüdiger rather wants to look ahead at the home event in summer where Germany face Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland in the group stage.
"The tournaments were the way they were. We have to be positive. We are facing a home Euros. We have a good squad, good lads. We know what we have to do," Rüdiger said.
