Germany call up Tah in place of Rudiger for Euro

Germany on Wednesday called up Bayer Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah to replace injured Antonio Rudiger in the squad for the Euro football championship starting on Friday in France.

Roma defender Rudiger injured his right knee anterior cruciate ligament during a training session with the national team on Sunday. The German football federation, DFB, announced the 23-year-old's withdrawal on Tuesday evening.

DFB announced it on Twitter with chief coach Joachim Low confirming the news of including 20-year-old Tah in place of Rudiger.

Tah has played for Germany once in a friendly against England in March. He played 29 times in the previous club season for Laverkusen.

"Löw: "We have decided to call up Jonathan #Tah. We wanted to replace @ToniRuediger with a centreback #DieMannschaft," DFB wrote on Twitter.

Earlier on Tuesday, DFB said: "Germany international Antonio Rudiger has been ruled out of the European Championship after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during Die Mannschaft's first training session in Évian."

"This was confirmed by an examination carried out by Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt and the medical team."

Germany's defence is short on experience after the international retirements of Philipp Lahm and Per Mertesacker after the 2014 World Cup triumph in Brazil.

To make matters worse, Bayern Munich's new signing and former Borussia Dortmund captain Mats Hummels is yet to fully recover from a calf injury and Jerome Boateng is also coming after a long injury lay-off.

Other defensive options for chief coach Joachim Low are Shkodran Mustafi, Jonas Hector, Benedikt Howedes and Joshua Kimmich.

--IANS

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