Hansi Flick explains decision to recall Julian Brandt to the Germany squad

Hansi Flick has backed Julian Brandt to make an impact for Germany after the Borussia Dortmund midfielder’s recall to the national team squad.

Almost one year after earning his last cap for Germany, Julian Brandt is back in the national team squad for their upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The attacking midfielder’s recall to the Germany squad is a reward for his impressive recent performances for Borussia Dortmund. And Hansi Flick is looking forward to seeing how he fares for Die Mannschaft.

In an interview with the DFB website, the Germany national team head coach gave his reasons for recalling Julian Brandt to the squad.

"“Julian Brandt has performed really well over the last few weeks. We wanted to see him and Julian Draxler in the squad again before the end of the year and the start of the World Cup year. Both have enormous footballing quality and can help us make progress.”"

Brandt goes into the Germany camp on the back of some strong performances for Borussia Dortmund. The 25 year old has become an important part of the BVB starting XI in recent weeks, and has managed to show more consistency with his performances than he did in the last two years.

Hansi Flick also spoke about the Germany future of Mats Hummels. The Borussia Dortmund centre-back was left out of the Germany squad once again. But Flick confirmed that the decision to leave out the 32 year old was made in order to give him more time to work on reaching full fitness after his recent knee problems.

"“I’m in close contact with Mats. As he said himself, he’s not at 100 percent yet. It will do him good to use this international break to get even fitter. We agreed on this together.”"

Germany have already qualified for next year’s FIFA World Cup. And Hansi Flick will likely use this month’s matches against Liechtenstein and Armenia to give his players a chance to stake a claim for a place in the squad for the tournament.