Germany have announced their squad numbers for World Cup preparation, which could indicate good news for Bayern Munich and national team captain Manuel Neuer.
The goalkeeper has not played since September following foot surgery and remained an unused substitute during Bayern's 3-1 DFB-Pokal final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
But Neuer has retained the number one jersey in the Germany squad for matches against Austria and Saudi Arabia ahead of their World Cup defence.
The players handed numbers higher than 23 – the size of final World Cup squads – and potentially in danger of missing out are Paris Saint-Germain keeper Kevin Trapp, defenders Niklas Sule and Jonathan Tah and uncapped forward Nils Petersen.
Joachim Low's side have been drawn in Group F for Russia 2018 alongside South Korea, Mexico and Sweden.
Germany's provisional World Cup squad:
Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Kevin Trapp (Paris Saint-Germain); Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Monchengladbach), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Marvin Plattenhardt (Hertha Berlin), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea), Niklas Sule (Bayern Munich), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen); Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (PSG), Leon Goretzka (Schalke), Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal), Sebastian Rudy (Bayern Munich); Mario Gomez (Stuttgart), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Nils Petersen (Freiburg), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Leroy Sane (Manchester City), Timo Werner (RB Leipzig).
