The Rise of Khedira: Influential vocies on the making of Madrid’s midfielder
Cristiano Ronaldo: “Khedira is very important. He gives the team better balance and this allows us to play in a more compact way.”
José Mourinho: “I currently do not know of any other player who is better than Sami in his position.”
Frieder Schrof, youth-team coach: Sami is thankful to everyone who stood by him when he was coming up. When he was last in Stuttgard, he dropped in for the Under-16s Christmas party and stayed all evening.”
Joachim Löw: “He is a true leader. He is very dynamic and makes his presence felt.”
Injury update: Sami Khedira injured his left ankle in Tuesday’s practice with his national team. The severity of the injury is unknown at this time, but AS reports that he was taken to a local hospital in Frankfurt to assess it.
Del Bosque called up Casillas, Albiol and Ramos for Spain’s friendly against Panama on the 14th. Meanwhile, Özil was on Germany’s squad list for the Netherlands game on the same day.
We have just one problem at the moment - the question of Sami Khedira. We do not know 100% whether Sami will be fit to play as he was treated today and will continue to be treated this evening.
According to Joachim Löw, Sami was replaced after the first half because of a muscle strain of his left thigh. His status is questionable for Germany’s World Cup qualifier against Sweden.
