Serge Gnabry pulls out of German national team fixtures

Bayern Munich’s new signee Serge Gnabry, on loan this year with TSG Hoffenheim, has suffered yet another setback after Hoffenheim’s failed effort to qualify for the Champions League in back-to-back losses to Liverpool: a ligament strain the forward sustained on his upper left ankle has forced Gnabry to break off training with the German national team.

Head coach Jogi Löw had called Gnabry up with a bevy of young players and several future Bayern Munich teammates as part of the 24-man squad assembled in Stuttgart ahead of Germany's World Cup qualifying match against the Czech Republic and Norway. Germany has a confortable lead at the top of Group C and can complete its qualification for the World Cup with two victories if second-place Northern Ireland loses both of its matches.

The international break is a missed opportunity for Gnabry, who is the only member of Germany's European champion U-21 team to be called up alongside 17 members of the young national team that won the Confederations Cup. As Löw attempts to meld the best of the U-21 team, the youthful vigor of the Confederations Cup team, and the remaining 2014 World Cup champions, Gnabry will undoubtedly leap at his next chance in the October break with Bayern’s blessing.