BERLIN (AP) – Newcastle forward Nick Urtemad did not join the German team as planned on Monday ahead of the World Cup qualifying game due to illness.
The 23-year-old Urtemaid, who won Newcastle’s Nottingham Forest 2-0 on Sunday, has the flu, the German football federation said Monday.
It is unclear whether he will come along to match Shinsheim’s Luxembourg on Friday or face Northern Ireland in Belfast next Monday.
Woltemade is expected to join the rest of the German team in the coming days, with coach Julian Nagelsmann not calling for an alternative to the players who joined Newcastle from Stuttgart during the offseason.
Woltemade has a promising start at Newcastle, scoring three goals in eight days in the team’s 4-0 victory at the Union Sanguillowers in the Champions League on Wednesday. He has had three in the Premier League so far.
The German team had met at Herzogenaurach in preparation for the World Cup qualifiers. Eintracht Frankfurt Defender Nathaniel Brown was the only newcomer To the squad.
After two rounds of Qualifying Group A, Germany scored three points after a surprising defeat to Slovakia in their first match. Slovakia leads by up to 6 points from two games.
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
