Germany captain Philipp Lahm is backing Bastian Schweinsteiger to win his fitness battle and play in Thursday's Euro 2012 semi-final, despite missing the last three training sessions.
Germany face either Italy or England in the Warsaw semi-final, but vice-captain and play-maker Schweinsteiger is feeling the effects of so much match time on his ankle having played all four Euro 2012 games so far.
Having torn ankle ligaments in February which kept him out for just over a month, Schweinsteiger is struggling to reach full fitness, but Lahm is backing his team-mate to help Germany's bid to reach the final in Kiev on July 1.
"It's true, having had to miss three training sessions makes things a bit unclear for him," said Lahm.
"We need fit players in the semifinals, we can't have anyone who is missing three or four percent.
"Having said that, I don't worry much about Bastian Schweinsteiger's state of health, he knows his body as well as anyone and I'm sure he'll be on that pitch on Thursday evening."
Having missed a key spot-kick in Bayern Munich's Champions League final defeat to Chelsea last month in a penalty shoot-out, Schweinsteiger set up both Germany's goals in their 2-1 group stage win over Holland at Euro 2012.
But he admits he was below par in Germany's victory over Greece in Friday's quarter-final victory at Arena Gdansk as the Germans booked their place in the last four with a 4-2 win.
"Against the Greeks, there were a few bad passes from me, which never normally happens," said the 27-year-old Schweinsteiger in an interview which appeared in several German newspapers.
"This shouldn't happen to a player like me.
"To be honest, the ankle is worrying me, especially when I explode off it."
Schweinsteiger has said he would have no problem starting on the bench if coach Joachim Loew decides not to start him on Thursday.
"If the coach decides so, I would have no problem with that," he said after Loew dropped forwards Mario Gomez, Lukas Podolski and Thomas Mueller for the win over Greece.
"We rotated a few people against Greece.
"People like Marco Reus, Jerome Boateng, Andre Schuerrle and Miroslav Klose came into the team, for them it was very important they had the backing of their team mates.
"Something like that is not self-evident in every side."
Source: AFP
