Schweinsteiger ruled out of France friendly

Germany will be without Bastian Schweinsteiger when they face France in Wednesday's friendly, but coach Joachim Low is not too concerned by the midfielder's absence. The Bayern Munich man picked up an ankle injury late in Bayern's 3-0 win over Mainz yesterday and he has withdrawn from Low's 23-man squad. "Of course we want to get a good result, but this game is a welcome opportunity for us to try something out and maybe see players who have not played regularly for us lately," he said. "The focus this year is on qualifying directly for the World Cup." Despite being the Bundesliga's top goalscorer in 2012 with 25 goals, Bayer Leverkusen's Stefan Kiessling was again left out of the squad with Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez selected, even though he has had only a handful of appearances since picking up an injury last summer. "Stefan has been with us before and he is not a youngster any more either," he said on the German Football Association's website. "That is why it would not have been fair on him to call him up for just a short appearance. I am always evaluating the situation, but I am not going to just call Kiessling up for one game. I will (call him up) when I can give him some real hope of getting a chance." From FIFA