WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (AP) \u2014 Germany defender Nico Schlotterbeck has been ruled out of the rest of the World Cup and beyond with a left ankle injury sustained during Saturday\u2019s 2-1 win over Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n
Tests on Sunday back at the team camp in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, revealed Schlotterbeck, who had started both of Germany\u2019s opening games in the tournament, sustained an injury to the medial ligament in his ankle and will be out for several months, the German soccer federation said Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will sorely miss Schlotti on the field as an outstanding defender, especially also his brilliant ability to build up play from the back,\u201d Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said. \u201cIt could have been his World Cup. We all tried to lift his spirits yesterday. Luckily, he\u2019s a very positive person who\u2019s already looking ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schlotterbeck, who plays for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, was to stay with the Germany squad for the rest of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great sign that he\u2019s staying with the squad for now, as he has an impact off the field as well,\u201d Nagelsmann said. \u201cDespite his absence, we\u2019re still very well-equipped at center-back for the World Cup with Jonathan Tah, Antonio R\u00fcdiger, Waldemar Anton, and Malick Thiaw.\u201d<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s win over Ivory Coast put the four-time champion into the knockout stage with a group game to spare. Germany is already assured of top spot in Group E before its final group game against Ecuador in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (AP) \u2014 Germany defender Nico Schlotterbeck has been ruled out of the rest of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[828,5,822,217,138,22143,221,799,795,798,35917,22144],"class_list":["post-41198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-antonio-rudiger","tag-germany","tag-ivory-coast","tag-jonathan-tah","tag-julian-nagelsmann","tag-malick-thiaw","tag-nico-schlotterbeck","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-42059-world-cup-text","tag-schlotterbeck-germany-injury","tag-waldemar-anton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}