Germany have named a 27-man preliminary squad for the European Championship, including Arsenal's Per Mertesacker.
27-man party named by Joachim Low
Germany have named a 27-man preliminary squad for the European Championship.
Joachim Low has named a familiar-looking party which also includes injured Arsenal stopper Per Mertesacker.
Low admits that he and his staff have been in constant contact with Arsenal over Mertesacker - who is recovering from an ankle injury - and he will be joining them for the pre-tournament training camp in Italy.
"We are in constant contact. He has been training with the team again. By flying with the team to Sardinia he must be at a competition level," he said.
Low has also named two uncapped players in the shape of Schalke starlet Julian Draxler and Borussia Moenchengladbach goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The main omissions from the squad were Christian Trasch, Simon Rolfes and Dennis Aogo.
Preliminary squad in full:
Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Borussia Monchengladbach), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover); Jerome Boateng, Holger Badstuber, Philipp Lahm (all Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Benedikt Howedes (Schalke), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund); Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira (both Real Madrid), Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller, Bastian Schweinsteiger (all Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Monchengladbach), Mario Goetze, Ilkay Gundogan (Borussia Dortmund), Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Andre Schuerrle (Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (Schalke); Lukas Podolski (Cologne), Cacau (Stuttgart), Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich) and Miroslav Klose (Lazio)
