The worst fears have been confirmed, Lennart Karl is out of the World Cup. The 18-year-old suffered injuries during the final training session for the tournament dress rehearsal against the USA Chicago a torn muscle bundle in the left front thigh.
The German Football Association confirmed this on Friday afternoon (June 5, 2026, local time). Assan Ouédraogo from Leipzig is somewhat surprisingly nominated for FC Bayern’s offensive player.
“I’m incredibly sorry for Lenny. With his carefree attitude, his wit, his pace and his personality, he fit perfectly into the team. It’s a big shock for him and all of us that he’s missing the World Cupt,” said national coach Julian Nagelsmann.
After top performances with Starting eleven ambitions
The three-time national player Karl celebrated his starting eleven debut in the DFB team last Sunday against Finland (4-0) and showed a good performance. Afterwards he had legitimate hopes of a regular place at the World Cup.
For Nagelsmann it is the second failure on the offensive. In April, Karl’s Munich teammate Serge Gnabry had to withdraw from the XXL tournament in the USA, Mexico and Canada (June 11th to July 19th) due to a torn adductor muscle on his right thigh.
Ouedraogo should “play courageously and carefree”
The fact that Karl is still young and still has many tournaments ahead of him is “just a small consolation“. One would have him “I really enjoyed being part of the team“. Ouédraogo is now moving into this position. The 20-year-old played his only international match so far against Slovakia (6-0) in November and also scored a goal.
Suddenly in the World Cup squad: Assan Ouédraogo
He was then stopped by two knee injuries and only made his comeback to RB at the beginning of April. “With Assan Ouédraogo we now have a player who, like Lenny, had a great debut with us. He is also highly talented and should play here bravely and carefree“said Nagelsmann.
Only at the start with the first eleven
On Saturday (8.30 p.m. CEST/RTL) against the USA, Ouédraogo will still be missing – as will Manuel Neuer. The 2014 world champion is continuing to build up his workload following the calf injury he suffered three weeks ago. “He is on the way to peak fitness. But we don’t want to take any risks yet“said Nagelsmann and announced Neuer’s start in team training next week.