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Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Mario Gotze, Germany, Football World Cup
Josh Lawless
Mario Gotze has been named in Germany's World Cup squad five years after his last call-up for his country.
Gotze was the hero for Die Mannschaft at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, scoring an extra time winner in the final against Argentina.
He was flying high at Bayern Munich at the time but then Gotze's progress stunted when he returned to Borussia Dortmund through no fault of his own.
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Gotze was sidelined after being diagnosed with myopathy - a rare muscle disorder that led to him being extremely fatigued and weak.
After undergoing treatment, he got back on track with Dortmund and returned to the Germany fold in November 2017 and played in a friendly against France.
However, he did not make Joachim Low's squad and was not in the mix for the Euro 2020 tournament either despite a fine run of form with PSV Eindhoven.
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But Gotze's comeback story is on as the Eintracht Frankfurt man has been included by Hansi Flick for the showpiece in Qatar.
Gotze has been been capped 63 times by Germany, scoring 17 times - the most important of which came at the Maracana Stadium on 13 July 2014.
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"'He's a brilliant footballer who has flashes of inspiration," Flick said on Gotze's inclusion.
"Mario has been playing at an extremely high level in the past few weeks. He had problems at the beginning, but now he's fully fit.
"'He's really happy and we're looking forward to seeing him."
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His fellow midfielders include the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Jonas Hofmann, Joshua Kimmich, Julian Brandt and Leon Goretzka.
However, Borussia Dortmund captain Marco Reus has suffered more tournament heartbreak and is not going to Qatar.
Reus has been struggling with an ankle problem that he appeared to aggravate against Union Berlin on October 16.
He missed Germany's 2014 triumph due to injury and was then left out of the Euro 2016 squad because of injuries.
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The former Borussia Monchengladbach man did feature at the 2018 World Cup campaign but Germany were dumped out of the group stage.
Reus ruled himself out of the Euro 2020 squad as he looked to focus on his recovery.