Bender, Reus to miss qualifiers

Sven Bender and Marco Reus have pulled out of Germany's squad for their FIFA World Cup™ qualifiers against Republic of Ireland and Sweden, the German Football Federation (DFB) said Monday. The news comes only a day after Bender's twin Lars, the Bayer Leverkusen defensive midfielder, also withdrew with a thigh problem. Borussia Dortmund'a defensive midfielder Sven is suffering from a groin strain and needs ten days rest while his club teammate playmaker Reus has ligament damage in his left foot and is expected to be out for two weeks. Group C leaders Germany need only beat Republic of Ireland in Cologne on Friday or avoid defeat to Sweden in Solna next Tuesday to secure their plane ticket to Brazil 2014. Source: fifa.com