The Daily Bee (July 18th, 2017): The Schmelzer-edition

• Schmelzer doubts Germany comeback

The omission of Marcel Schmelzer from the German national team has been baffling for years now considering the only competition is Jonas Hector from 1.FC Köln. Nevertheless Joachim Löw has repeatedly refused to call up BVB’s captain, during this summers ConFed Cup he preferred to take Marvin Plattenhardt instead of Schmelzer.

Without any disrespect to Hector or Plattenhardt but this has just been a tough pill to swallow for Schmelzer and the BVB-fans because he’s clearly better than both of those players but somehow Löw just does not value him. Now Schmelzer has commented on the situation when asked about a possible comeback for the national team.

SportBild quotes him as saying “That’s always a topic for me because there is nothing better than playing for Germany....but somehow it won’t happen. And because the national team coach has extended his contract it will be difficult for me.”

This of course immediately made headlines as Schmelzer taking a shot at Löw but honestly it’s just simply the truth. Schmelzer never really got a chance to play for Germany even though he has been the best German left back for years now.

• Schmelzer injures ankle

Talking about Schmelzer, he twisted his ankle in the last training session on Monday and had to leave the pitch with a bandaged ankle. He won’t play in today’s friendly against AC Milan and will be rested until they get back home where he will be examined.

Drotmund can’t afford another injury to one of their key players, especially at left back where Raphael Guerreiro is already out 3-4 months. If Schmelzer is seriously injured (which doesn’t look that way for now) Dortmund would have to rely on Felix Passlack.

Daily Buzz: What are you looking forward to in the game against Milan?