Returning Neuer ruled out of Germany friendlies with injury

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has suffered a muscle injury which rules him out of upcoming Germany friendlies against France and the Netherlands which were to mark his return to the team after missing all of its matches last year.

"Manuel Neuer has left the squad early due to a torn muscle fibre in his left adductor muscle and will miss the two upcoming international matches. He suffered the injury in training in the morning," the national federation DFB said on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.

Neuer, 37, was returning to the squad after missing all 2023 games due to a lower leg fracture. His last Germany matches were at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Coach Julian Nagelsmann said that Barcelona's Marc-Andre ter Stegen will be between the posts for the games on Saturday in Lyon against France and three days later against the Dutch in Frankfurt.

Nagelsmann named Neuer's injury "very, very annoying" while adding in reference to ter Stegen: "Thankfully we have a world class goalkeeper in goal who will surely have a good performance."

It was not clear immediately how long Neuer will be sidelined but he is also set to miss matches at Bayern Munich in the closing stage of the season, with Bayern second in the Bundesliga and in the Champions League quarter-finals against Arsenal in April.

There are only two more national team games before Germany kick off the home Euro 2024 tournament on June 14 against Scotland, on June 3 against Ukraine and four days later against Greece.

The injury news came amid speculation that Neuer was to be given first choice status by Nagelsmann for the friendlies and Euros, according to dpa sources.

Nagelsmann had said he would talk to all players about their planned role on Monday and Tuesday.

There has so far been no official confirmation.

Neuer has been Germany's number one at all World Cups and Euros since 2010 and has won 117 caps, with 49 clean sheets and only 19 defeats.

Ter Stegen has been a national team rival since 2012 and has 38 caps. The 31-year-old had hoped to finally be named first choice for the home Euros.

Neuer won the 2014 World Cup while ter Stegen won the 2017 Confederations Cup with a young team without Neuer and many others.

Nagelsmann has meanwhile also said that Real Madrid's Antonio Rüdiger and Jonathan Tah will be his centre backs in the friendlies, and also at the Euros if they do well.

The decision, after experiments with other players and the likes of Mats Hummels and Niklas Süle now dropped, was welcomed by Rüdiger on Wednesday.

"You can deal with each other in a completely different way during training and have different conversations," Rüdiger said.

The 66-times capped defender praised Tah as "outstanding" and said there is "no better player in the Bundesliga" in this position at the moment.

Rüdiger said that Nagelsmann has told him to be a leader at the back and he pledged that the team will show "a reaction concerning the basics" from a poor 2023 with just three victories from 11 games and defeats against Turkey and Austria in the final two games.

"We can talk about tactics and everything but there must be a readiness. And of course a result," he said.

Germany also underperformed in group stage exits at the last two World Cup and a last 16 elimination at the last Euros but Rüdiger rather wants to look ahead at the home event in summer where Germany's other group stage opponents are Hungary and Switzerland.

"The tournaments were the way they were. We have to be positive. We are facing a home Euros. We have a good squad, good lads. We know what we have to do," Rüdiger said.