Reus, Mané and Nkunku lead World Cup absentee list

The news was already doing the rounds hours before Hansi Flick's announcement of his Germany squad for 2022 World Cup: Marco Reus was going to miss out on another major tournament.

The Borussia Dortmund captain has been largely out of action since sustaining an ankle ligament injury in the Revierderby against Schalke in September and hadn't responded to treatment as quickly as hoped.

It is one of football cruelest ironies that the 33-year-old, one of the top German talents of his generation, has only ever made five appearances at major tournaments for his county: two games as a youngster at Euro 2012 and three more during Germany's disastrous campaign at Russia 2018.

After missing Germany's triumph in Brazil in 2014 with an ankle sprain and Euro 2016 in France with a pubic bone issue, and withdrawing from the Euro 2020 squad to regain fitness ahead of the World Cup, this latest blow is particularly painful.

Marco Reus: no time to recover

For Dr. Wolfgang Potthast, a sports scientist at the German Sports University in Cologne, the dramatically condensed footballing schedule to accommodate the World Cup in Qatar has placed a heavier load on players in the first half of the 2022-23 season.

"Marco Reus has been prone to injuries as long he has played football," he says. "If there were a longer break between the end of league competition and the World Cup, Marco would probably have had a better chance."

Reus is not on his own. Niclas Füllkrug's surprise call-up may be well-deserved on the back of his exploits for newly-promoted Werder Bremen this season (10 goals making him the highest-scoring German in the Bundesliga), but would have been unlikely without injury to Timo Werner.

The 26-year-old returned to RB Leipzig from Chelsea this summer with the World Cup at the front of his mind, but suffered an ankle injury in RB's final Champions League group game against Shakhtar Donetsk earlier this month – his tenth game for club and country in just over six weeks.

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

'Reduced regeneration time between games'

It's not just Germany heading to Qatar somewhat short in the striking department; African champions Senegal will also be without star striker and talisman Sadio Mané after he limped off after just 20 minutes of the Bayern Munich's penultimate game before the World Cup against Werder Bremen on Tuesday.

Mané, Senegal's all-time leading goalscorer, has already played 22 matches for Bayern since the start of the season, including 12 games in the last 40 days.

"The timing of this World Cup poses a very big challenge for training planning and load control in the clubs," says Mark Tastan, a physiotherapist with the German Olympic Sports Association who has also worked with Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin.

"Since the regeneration times for players between games are greatly reduced, it can be assumed that there will be several injuries or overload injuries among the players on average for this season."

World Cup holders France have had to make their own adjustments to their title defense. They have known for some time that Paul Pogba (knee) and N'Golo Kante (hamstring), two key members of their midfield, would be unavailable. But now they will also be without Christopher Nkunku, who has scored 17 goals in 23 games for RB Leipzig this season, after he picked up a knee injury in training — Eintracht Frankfurt's Randal Kolo Muani has replaced him in the French squad.

'More injuries after the World Cup'

And the end of the World Cup won't necessarily spell the end of the fixture congestion either.

While Germany's Bundesliga will go straight into a month-long winter break until January 20, the English Premier League will return to action with its traditional post-Christmas Boxing Day fixtures on December 26 and 27, just one week after the World Cup final.

In Cologne, Dr. Potthast is predicting an accumulation of, if not necessarily injuries, drop-offs in form due to players being "overplayed" – especially from those players whose national teams go far in Qatar.

"You can bet there will be more injuries after the World Cup," concurs Mark Tastan in Berlin, while Potthast notes: "If Germany go home again after the group stage, the players will get a longer break."

This article was updated from its original version to include the injury to Christopher Nkunku.

Edited by Matt Ford