Already facing up to being without Bastian Schweinsteiger, German coach Joachium Loew has decided to rest skipper Philipp Lahm for upcoming friendlies against Ukraine and Holland on November 11 and 15.
"We spoke Thursday on the phone and I decided it was time to give him a break as he has played a lot this season, generally for 90 minutes," said Loew.
Loew has called up Lars Bender of Bayer Leverkusen to make up for the loss through injury of the experienced Schweinsteiger, who has just undergone collarbone surgery after the Bayern Munich star suffered the injury in midweek facing Napoli in the Champions League and who will now be out until next year.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, also of Bayern, is in the squad to face the Dutch leaving either Tim Wiese of Werder Bremen or youngster Ron-Robert Zieler of Hannover to take on the Ukrainians.
The squad will meet up Tuesday in Hamburg for the Euro-2012 warm-ups.
Germany squad:
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover)
Defenders: Dennis Aogo (Hamburg), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Dortmund), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal/ENG), Christian Traesch (Wolfsburg), Marcel Schmelzer (Dortmund)
Midfielsers: Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Mario Goetze (Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Lukas Podolski (Cologne), Mesut Oezil (Real Madrid), Marco Reus (Moenchengladbach), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Andre Schuerrle (Bayer Leverkusen)
Strikers: Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Lazio/ITA), Cacau (VfB Stuttgart)
Coach: Joachim Loew
Source: AFP
