Leroy Sane set to replace injured Deniz Undav ahead of Nations League fixtures

Due to a thigh strain injury to VfB Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav, Julian Nagelsmann has made the decision to call up Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sané to the Germany national team for the upcoming pair of UEFA Nations League matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary.

While the two players do not exactly play the exact same position for their respective clubs, Sané is considered to be the direct replacement for Undav in the squad, as the former might not have been involved in the squad at all had it not been for Undav’s injury concern.

Undav was a major doubt to take part in Stuttgart’s Bundesliga clash against Eintracht Frankfurt and he was ultimately left out of the squad entirely, prompting Nagelsmann to make the personnel change in the Germany squad. 

Undav picked up his injury in Stuttgart’s midweek Champions League loss to Atalanta and he was replaced by Ermedin Demirović in the 56th minute of the 2-0 losing effort.

For Sané, this will be his first time back in the Germany squad since the European Championships over the summer. 

During that tournament, he only made two starts from Germany’s total of six matches up to the quarter-finals, where they lost to Spain in extra time in Stuttgart. 

During that stretch of matches, Sané was still not considered to be 100%, as he was still not fully recovered from his pubic bone injury that caused his minutes to be managed for the end of Bayern’s season as they fought to get to the Champions League final.

After the Euros were over, Sané had a successful operation to repair his persistent injury, but it caused him to have a slow start to this current season on a count of getting back to 100% fit and healthy. 

He missed out on Nagelsmann’s squads for the past two international breaks, but he now has a chance to re-establish himself as a mainstay in the setup for the German National side.