Marco Reus to Miss World Cup Due to Injury Sustained During Germany’s Last Friendly Match
Oladunjoye Opeyemi
Germany cruised to a 6-1 win over Armenia in their final World Cup warm-up on friday, but the game was overshadowed by an injury to Marco Reus which looks likely to prevent the Borussia Dortmund midfielder from going to Brazil on Saturday.
The 25-year-old was carried off the field with tears in his eyes just before half-time and he was immediately taken to hospital for a scan on what appeared to be a serious ankle injury that set a sober mood for the second half. Podolski took his place to set Andre Schurrle up for the first goal which put Germany in front early on with further goals from Lukas Podolski, Benedikt Howedes and a record-breaking Miroslav Klose effort cancelling out Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s equaliser from the penalty spot.
Mario Gotze added two more for Joachim Low’s men, although Reus’ injury rendered the result secondary with Germany set to lose a key player 10 days prior to their opening group fixture against Portugal.
Reus had demonstrated his importance to the Germany side during the first half in which he went closer than anybody to breaking the deadlock. Twice he combined with Thomas Muller, the first time seeing his shot cleared off the line by a defender before Armenia goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky came out on top of their next one-on-one duel.
Reus was caught in a challenge on his left ankle, which he seemed to get caught in the ground. The look on the face of Germany doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt as well as a grimace which tried to mask Reus’ tears was a clear enough to spell doom.
The match also saw Klose become Germany’s all-time top goalscorer with his 69th international goal — one more than Gerd Muller – with a close-range header from Podolski’s cross.
