Germany manager Rudi Voller this afternoon confirmed that gifted young midfielder Sebastian Deisler has been ruled out of the World Cup.
Deisler was stretchered off just 20 minutes into Germany's 6-2 dismissal of Austria last Saturday, and tests revealed he had suffered a recurrence of the knee injury that caused him to miss most of Hertha Berlin's season.
In the absence of Deisler and the already-ruled out Mehmet Scholl, the three time world champions will rely almost exclusively on Michael Ballack for creative inspiration, and doubts about his fitness still linger - he had to take painkilling injections to be able to take the field for Bayer Leverkusen in last week's Champions League Final.