Germany’s Timo Werner latest to miss World Cup with ankle injury

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By Martin Graham | 5th Nov 2022

Bad news for Germany as key forward Timo Werner has suffered an ankle injury which has ruled him out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

RB Leipzig put out a statement on Thursday confirming the news on their website. The statement reads: “Bad news for Timo Werner and RB Leipzig! The striker injured his left ankle in the win over Shakhtar Donetsk and was taken off in the 19th minute.

“Scans today in Leipzig showed that he has unfortunately torn the syndesmosis ligament in his left ankle. Timo Werner will therefore be out for the rest of 2022.

“A decision on his treatment will be made in the coming days.”

Werner had to be taken off after just 19 minutes when it was determined that he could not continue. The 26 year old went down holding his ankle after attempting to play a simple pass and he was eventually replaced by Emil Forsberg.

Werner left the English Premier League club, Chelsea for familiar surroundings in form of RB Leipzig, his former employers in order to get more game time and find consistent form in time for the World Cup. All signs pointed to his plan working out as Werner has been excellent since returning to Germany. He had scored nine goals and provided four assists in 16 appearances across all competitions and had scored in three consecutive matches before the Shaktar Donetsk fixture.

Werner has been a key player in Hansi Flick’s Germany squad since he took over last August, scoring eight goals in 13 games under him. Flick will now have to go to the world cup without one of the more prolific players in his ranks. It is even more worrying considering the German’s struggles in front of goal.

“This piece of news is extremely bitter,” Germany coach Hansi Flick said. “I feel very bad for Timo personally because he will miss the World Cup which he desperately wanted to play in.”

“But especially for the team it is a big loss. We have to make do without an outstanding striker with a high scoring ratio also for the national team and a real team player,” said the Germany national team coach.

Above all though, his absence is a big loss for the team. We all wish him a speedy recovery!”

Since making his debut for Die Mannshaft in 2017, Timo Werner has gone on to win himself 55 caps for the national team and score 24 goals.

Werner released a tweet on Thursday confirming that he will indeed miss the tournament.

“A very tough one to take for me! I will be out for the next weeks, will miss the World Cup and will have to support RB Leipzig and Germany from the couch unfortunately. Thanks for all your messages!”

Germany begin their World Cup campaign against Japan on November 23rd.