Having all recovered from injury, the Werder trio of Torsten Frings, Tim Borowski and Clemens Fritz have all been nominated by Germany coach Joachim Loew to join up with the national squad. The trio will join lofty central defender Per Mertesacker for Germany’s Euro 2008 qualifying matches in Dublin against Ireland on Saturday, 13.10.2007 (8:45pm kick-off) and in Munich against the Czech Republic on Wednesday, 17.10.2007 (8:45pm kick-off).

Loew grounded his decision to recall the players who had been along for some time through injury by saying “For many years now, Torsten Frings has been an indispensable player and we are very happy to have him back with us again. With Clemens Fritz and Tim Borowski we will first have to have a look at what sort of condition they are in. We still have a couple of days to decide. I know that they couldn’t possibly be in their best form having been out for so long.”

The fourth Werder man in the national side was delighted about the call-up of his club colleagues: “That’s great, much better when we can travel together”, said Per Mertesacker who would have been the only Green-White in the team if the others had been unfit to join the squad. Tim Borowski made his last international appearance on 07.02.2007 against Switzerland. Torsten Frings and Clemens Fritz were both involved against Slovakia on 06.06.2007. Borowski has ´never lost contact with the national team though: “I’ve been out for three quarters of a year but I’ve often visited the team during that time. I’m really happy to be able to play again”, admitted the 27 year old.

Werder coach Thomas Schaaf acknowledged the decision of Joachim Loew by saying: “I was in contact with Joachim Loew over the last couple of days and we both agreed that the nomination would be okay so long as our players were healthy. There could well be an advantage of being called up as they will be able to take part in team training in the next week which would hardly be possible with us due to injury and players on international duty. Aside from that they have the chance to gather match practice”, said Thomas Schaaf.

General manager Klaus Allofs was in agreement: “It’s nice to see Werder so well represented again. The fact that they can train in the next week is advantageous for us. The most important thing is that they return fit.”