Berlin: Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger's faces a race against time to be fit for this year's European Championship after an MRI on his latest knee injury Wednesday revealed a partial ligament tear.
The Manchester United midfielder was hurt toward the end of Tuesday's training session and the extent of the injury was determined in Munich by Germany team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfahrt.
A recovery period was not immediately given but Schweinsteiger is definitely out of Germany's friendlies against England and Italy, and the 31-year-old could be a doubt for Germany's opening Euro 2016 game against Ukraine in Lille on June 10.
"It happened at the end of the training session, without any other player involved, when he took a pass and aggravated the previous injury," Germany coach Joachim Loew said, referring to the two months Schweinsteiger missed after tearing a ligament this year.
German football federation media director Ralf Koettker later said that Schweinsteiger was actually being challenged by another player when he suffered the injury.
Mesut Ozil and Karim Bellarabi were staying in the team hotel for treatment. Ozil took a knock to his left ankle playing for Arsenal, while Bellarabi had a bruise in his right foot.
Germany play England at Berlin's Olympiastadion on Saturday, then Italy in Munich three days later.
Despite the absences — only 14 of 26 call-ups trained on the pitch for the first team session at Hertha Berlin's amateur stadium — Loew was looking forward to the games to kick-start his side's European Championship preparations.
"We deliberately looked for strong opponents. They're not normal friendlies but very special games," said Loew, who added that he picked a larger squad than usual to give every player a chance to impress.
"It's important to have a bit of clarity after these games as it's the last chance before the (championship) squad is nominated to have to the players together," Loew said.
Loew reflected on the attacks that killed at least 34 people and injured 270 others in Brussels the day before, saying they brought back memories of the attacks in Paris in November, when the team was playing France at the Stade de France.
"The events were certainly terrible, they make us all a bit more pensive. When you see the pictures, thoughts of Paris come back," Loew said. "But we don't let ourselves be affected by this.
"The security arrangements will be discussed internally, of course. We hope the European Championship passes peacefully so that sport remains the focus. We're concentrating fully on the sporting aspect."
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