Toprak returns to Turkey squad
Ömer Toprak returns to the Turkey squad for the first time in over two years. 16 Werkself pros are on international duty this week.
The Werkself training ground will be rather empty this week. There's a simple reason for the lack of players at Bayer 04: The next international break is here. And a squad full of Leverkusen players are away with their national teams. For the last international break there were 19 Bayer 04 players on the road at the end of August. There are fewer this time because of injuries to Karim Bellarabi, Vladlen Yurchenko and Joel Pohjanpalo.
Wendell is particularly looking forward to his trip to Brazil. The left back has received his first call-up to the Seleção squad and he is hoping to make his full international debut in the matches against Bolivia and Venezuela. Team-mate Charles Aránguiz is set to play for Chile in the South American World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Peru.
Germany, with Bernd Leno, Julian Brandt and Kevin Volland in the squad, have two World Cup qualifiers against the Czech Republic (Saturday, 8 October) and Northern Ireland (Tuesday, 11 October) with both matches kicking off at 20.45 CET. Jonathan Tah and Benjamin Henrichs are in the Germany U 21 squad for the matches against Russia (Friday, 7 October, 18.00 CET) and Austria (11 October, 18.00 CET).
Turkey with Hakan Calhanoglu and, for the first time in over two years, Ömer Toprak face Ukraine and Iceland. "It feels very special. I've been out of the reckoning for a long time so I was really pleased to get the call-up. The situation for people in Turkey has been really difficult recently. That makes it even better to be back again. We want to make them happy," said Toprak after the match against Borussia Dortmund when asked about his comeback for the national team coached by Fatih Terim.
Admir Mehmedi and Switzerland are in action against Hungary and Andorra. Julian Baumgartlinger, Aleksandar Dragovic and Ramazan Özcan are ready to take on the challenge with Austria to get important points in the World Cup qualifying campaign against Wales and Serbia. Croatia with Tin Jedvaj play Kosovo and Finland. Kevin Kampl and Slovenia are looking for wins against Slovakia and England. Robbie Kruse is with Australia for matches against Saudi Arabia and Japan.
As far as the youth players at Bayer 04 are concerned, Joel Abu Hanna is away with the Germany U19s and Kai Havertz, Atakan Akkaynak and Sam Schreck are on the road with the Germany U18 squad.
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