If Anton Stach is looking forward to next Thursday, the day when national coach Hansi Flick announces his squad for the World Cup, then he doesn't show it.

"It would be nice to be there," he says when asked, but adds that this topic is not his focus.

It is very likely that the FSV Mainz 05 midfielder belongs to the list of up to 55 names that the German Football Association had to submit to the world association as a provisional squad.

Whether he will still be there if only 26 players escape Flick's red pencil is an open question.

"I think I have chances, but I don't put any pressure on myself," he says.

That would probably also be counterproductive in his attempt to regain the form that made him the Mainz shooting star and one of the big surprises in the Bundesliga last season.

Rarely has the path of a German soccer player from Bundesliga regular to national team player been as short as with Stach.

When Flick called him for the first time in March of this year, there were only two and a half football months behind Stach, in which he was consistently in the starting lineup.

From U21 European Champion to senior national player

The Mainz coach Bo Svensson had brought Stach, who came from Fürth, to Bruchweg on almost every matchday in his first few weeks, but the first appearances rarely lasted more than 20 minutes.

Only when Dominik Kohr, the undisputed boss in defensive midfield, was injured for a long time did Stach move into the front row.

In the 3-0 win against VfL Wolfsburg at the beginning of December, he not only adequately replaced the former Frankfurt player in the sixth position, but also appeared as a goalscorer.

After that, Stach was an integral part of the starting line-up, by the end of the season he had set up six goals - and the U21 European champions had become a senior international.

A rapid development for a man whose intended professional career did not seem to be in the best of hands when he was sorted out at the age of 16 from the youth academy of SV Werder Bremen.

This was followed every year by positions at the Oldenburg talent club JFV Nordwest, VfL Osnabrück and at SSV Jeddeloh in Ammerland.

Then he was brought in by VfL Wolfsburg, for whose second team Stach played 40 regional league games - and all of a sudden it happened very quickly: 2020 to SpVgg Greuther Fürth, one of the best right away, promotion to the Bundesliga, European title with the DFB juniors, Change to Mainz, Olympic participant.

And less than a year and a half later world championship driver?

In the first few weeks of the current season, such mind games were relegated to the realm of the imagination.

Anton Stach ran after his opponents and the old form, seemed inhibited.

The club only explained late that the 23-year-old was limited by a hip injury, which Svensson temporarily took out after the fifth matchday.

The break was good for him, the pain is gone, Stach can move normally again, show off his duel strength and dynamism.

"He's been a different player since then," Svensson attests.

“This is the Anton as we know it from last season.

He has a completely different power, a completely different self-image.” Stach himself says that his head is clear again, and he obviously doesn’t want to rack his brains over the question of whether the level he has regained is sufficient to convince Flick.

"I just keep playing and always try to do my best," he says.

"If the national coach thinks he needs my qualities, he's welcome to take me with him."

One aspect that speaks for a place in Flick's squad is Stach's versatility.

He can act alone in defensive midfield or on the double six, is an above-average figure eight with his ball security, can play on the flanks and has already played a strong offensive part behind the front with the 05ers in 3-4-2-1.

Bo Svensson holds back with tips to the national coach.

Just this much: “I think Anton is a good player and is doing great.

Hansi will take care of everything else.”