CHICAGO — Germany’s 18-year-old midfielder Lennart Karl may miss the World Cup after he was sent to the hospital for scans following an unspecified injury in training on Friday.
Karl is considered one of the top young players in any World Cup squad after a breakout season with Bayern Munich, for whom he became the club’s youngest ever goal scorer in the Champions League.
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“Unfortunately Lenni injured himself today in training. We need to wait on what happens with that and to be honest, it didn’t look so good,” Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said ahead of his team’s final World Cup tune-up against the United States on Saturday.
“He needs to process the situation, we do too, and we’ll see what we do. We need a diagnosis for that and then we’ll inform you. Then we’ll see if we can hopefully keep going with him for the tournament or if I need to nominate a replacement.”
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World Cup rules allow Nagelsmann to call up a replacement player in cases of “serious injury or illness” until 24 hours before the kickoff of Germany’s opening game, which is on June 14 against World Cup newcomer Curaçao.
