“The national coach and I spoke on the phone several times,” said the 25-year-old in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag” about conversations with Hansi Flick. “It is a great motivation for me: I have the goal of returning to the DFB team as soon as possible, of course. As I said, I am always in contact with the doctors at the DFB.”
Koch had been out for weeks until last December, and the former Freiburg Bundesliga professional had played his last of eight international matches in June before the European Championship against Denmark (1: 1). At the finals, Koch was in the German squad of Flick’s predecessor Joachim Löw, but was not used.
He has his eyes firmly on the World Cup in Qatar at the end of this year. “I will accelerate and present myself in the best possible way,” said Koch. “Every national player naturally wants to be at the World Cup. Last summer we broke up after the European Championships and said: We have to do better. And we want to implement that together. But there is still a lot of time until then.”
dpa
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Stand: 09.01.2022, 09:51
