Mesut Özil will miss Germany’s final pre-World Cup friendly with injury, and faces a race against time to get fit for the actual tournament in Russia later this month.

Bild initially claimed Özil had missed four days of training with his country, after picking up a knock in their last game against Austria. He was pictured alone working on his fitness, as the rest of the squad underwent their usual training sessions. The German outlet cast doubt on the 29-year-old’s World Cup as a result.

The German Football Federation then confirmed Özil is suffering from a ‘bruised knee’, rather than a recurrence of his lingering back problem. However, reports suggest he’s still struggling with that injury as well.

As a result, the Arsenal man will certainly miss Germany’s friendly against Saudi Arabia.

Reports he could miss the entire World Cup are extremely premature though. As Sport Witness point out, Bild are only suggesting Özil could miss Germany’s first game, not all of them.

We’ll have to wait and see how he recovers from this latest knock before assuming anything about his part in the tournament though.

It’s a shame, because the playmaker is performing well when he does get on the pitch. He scored Germany’s only goal against Austria in their last friendly. Hopefully he doesn’t miss out on too many more matches.