Prior to VfB Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav picking up a thigh injury during the 2-0 Champions League loss to Atalanta last week, it was only Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry and Jamal Musiala for Bayern Munich players to get called up to Julian Naglesmann’s Germany squad for the upcoming pair of UEFA Nations League matches. They are set to take on Bosnia and Herzegovina in Freiburg and then Hungary in Budapest.
With Undav having to withdraw from the squad due to his injury, Nagelsmann made the late decision to replace him with Leroy Sané, who is now back with the Germany squad for the first time since the Euros over the summer. He started two matches at that tournament since he was technically not 100% fit, but one of his starts was the 2-1 loss to Spain in the quarterfinals.
While admitting that Sané was not a part of his original plans for the upcoming pair of UEFA Nations League matches, Nagelsmann did say that he has seen some of the winger’s recent performances for Bayern that have impressed him. “We weren’t planning with him for the next two games. We wanted to let him have more rhythm. But he’s had good games recently. Especially against Benfica, I thought he turned the game around when he came on. He has a role to fulfill. I spoke to him about that. We all know what he’s capable of. He’s one of the best players we have in Germany when he brings his full potential to the pitch,” the manager explained from a press conference from the DFB campus in Frankfurt (via @iMiaSanMia).
Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images
Under Kompany so far this season, Sané has predominantly played the part of a substitute, though he has been able to make his presence felt when called upon. He was still recovering from an operation to fix a recurrent pubic bone injury that he suffer through most of the second half of last season and through the EUROs with Germany.
The timing was tough for him, too. Had he had the operation prior to the Euros, he would have missed the tournament altogether, but Nagelsmann said that Sané still felt he underperformed at the tournament as a whole and wants to be doing better for Germany.
“He wasn’t happy with his performances at the EUROs. He knows he can do better. It’s up to him to show that,” Nagelsmann stressed.
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