The first international break of 2017 is upon us. It's time to take a look at which Werder players will be on the road with their national teams next week. Overall, seven Werder players have received nominations from their respective countries, while Serge Gnabry was forced to call off his involvement with Germany’s U21 side due to injury. WERDER.DE previews each players’ schedule next week.
Zlatko Junuzovic, SVW's captain since Clemens Fritz’s injury, will face Moldova with the Austrian national team in World Cup qualifying group D. Four days after the encounter in Vienna’s Ernst-Happel-Stadion Junuzovic will take on Finland in a friendly, with Werder defender Niklas Moisander at the same location. Before Finland and their captain Moisander square off with Austria, they are hosted by Turkey in their bid to qualify for the World Cup in Russia.
Denmark’s Thomas Delaney is headed for Romania for a World Cup qualifier, while Theodor Gebre Selassie and the Czech Republic should be favourites in their group encounter in San Marino.
Serge Gnabry, who celebrated a very successful national team debut against San Marino last year in November, is unable to make the trip to join the U21 team. Werder’s top goalscorer was already sidelined in Saturday’s Bundesliga encounter with RB Leipzig due to muscular problems. In correspondence with Werder’s medical department and the DFB doctors, it was decided that Gnabry will receive treatment in Munich over the next few days before returning to Bremen.
Milos Veljkovic will likely take part in the European Championships with Serbia’s youth national team, but first they have two friendly games on their schedule. Games against the U21 sides from Sweden and Slovakia await the Werder defensive all-rounder.
Another Green-White encounter could take place between Ulisses Garcia and two Werder U23 team players. Taking part in the four-nation tournament with their U20 teams are Switzerland and Germany, who have included Ole Käuper and Thore Jacobsen in their 30-man squad. Niklas Schmidt is the only Werder player to have three games scheduled with Germany on their road to qualify for the European Championships, facing U19 teams from Cyprus, Serbia and Slovakia.
