Marco Reus says World Cup dreams have been shattered

Star player after star player has dropped out of the World Cup or had a brush with injury. Borussia Dormund midfielder Marco Reus, who was on Germany’s squad and expected to be a contributor for the World Cup favorites, suffered an ankle injury in a friendly on Friday.

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On Saturday he learned he had torn ligaments in his ankle, an injury that will force him out of the World Cup less than a week before it was slated to kick off.

“I really don’t know how I’m meant to find the words to express what I’m feeling right now,” Reus told Dortmund’s official website, via Sky Sports.

“A dream’s been shattered, but I’ve got to look forward and go into my rehabilitation as professionally as I can, because things have to go on.

“I’ll come back even stronger than I was. My best wishes now go to the team. I hope they reach our goal without me.”

He will also miss most of Dortmund’s preseason with the injury.

“For him and for us this is extremely regrettable,” Germany coach Joachim Low said, via the Daily Mail.

“Marco was in excellent form; he made an outstanding impression in the training camp and in both (friendly) matches against Cameroon and Armenia. He exuded enthusiasm for the game. He played a central role in our planning for Brazil”

Germany decided to call up former Everton defender Shkodran Mustafi instead of a midfielder, Reus’ position. Low said it was because they weren’t trying to replace Reus and they already have a plethora of talent at the position.

“It’s not about replacing Marco Reus directly,” Low said. “We have a lot of quality for the position behind the forward.

“Here we have in Lukas Podolski, Andre Schuerrle, Mario Goetze, Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil, Julian Draxler and Toni Kroos enough options. So we decided for another option in defense.”