Timo Werner drama, goodbye to World Cup dream

Injury more serious than expected for Timo Werner

Germany also has its own headaches ahead of the World Cup starting in a little more than two weeks in Qatar: Timo Werner, striker for Leipzig and the Teutonic national team, will not be able to play due to an ankle injury, suffered on the final day of the Champions League group stage, that proved more serious than expected.

Werner, 26, was injured in the early stages of his Leipzig’s narrowly won match against Shakhtar: initially a precautionary substitution was thought, precisely to avoid greater damage, but instrumental examinations carried out on Thursday confirmed the dramatic news for the player: rupture of the syndesmotic ligament in the ankle, the recovery time is expected to be quite long.

The German striker is just the latest in a series of players who will be forced to miss the World Cup due to injuries sustained in the first part of the season: among them France’s Pogba and Kanté, Portugal’s Diogo Jota, Belgium’s Saelemaekers, and England’s James.