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Manuel Neuer will not return to the German national team for the time being

Photo: Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images

Bayern Munich's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who has been injured for a long time, will still be absent from the next international matches of the German national football team. He has been in contact with national coach Julian Nagelsmann "for a long time. We also spoke to Dortmund. I'm not going to go to the national team. I still need time for myself, the games come too early," said the 37-year-old ahead of Bayern's Champions League match against Galatasaray on Wednesday (21 p.m./ stream: DAZN, live ticker: spiegel.de).

It is important for him to "take care of my wounds" after his severe lower leg fracture. He is pleased that a return to the DFB team "will be the case next year".

"I always want to be on the pitch."

Manuel Neuer

The 2014 World Champion once again underlined his ambitions to become number one again. This is Marc-André ter Stegen of FC Barcelona at the moment. "Everything that comes is a bonus, but I'm an ambitious and ambitious guy. I'm going to compete to play. I always want to be on the pitch," said Neuer.

For the first time after his injury, he admitted that his career had been on a knife's edge after his serious lower leg injury. "It was a serious injury. I'm happy that I can play football again at all," said Neuer.

After his injury, Neuer had a fierce argument with Nagelsmann, who was still coach of Bayern at the time. Neuer had verbally attacked the club management of the record champions in an interview in February for parting ways with goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalović . That was "the most blatant thing" he had experienced in his career. Bayern had parted ways with Tapalović at the time, mainly because of disagreements in the cooperation with Nagelsmann.

Even before Neuer was fit again, Bayern also parted ways with Nagelsmann. Now the reunion of the two at the national team has been postponed for the time being.

Tuchel praises Neuer

At Bayern, Neuer has been on the pitch three times since his return. He kept a clean sheet in both the 8-0 win over Darmstadt and the 4-0 win in Dortmund, but also suffered an unexpected exit from the DFB Cup at 1.

Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel was effusive in his praise of his goalkeeper ahead of the game against Galatasaray. "It's sensationally good. We all didn't know if he would be able to play English weeks right away, if he would get reactions. He has small reactions, of course, but they're always fixed by the next game."

The German national team, then still without Neuer, will face Turkey in their last international matches of the year on 18 November in Berlin and three days later in Vienna against Austria.

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