Khedira: Basti is our captain even if I wear the armband

Bastian Schweinsteiger has been called up to represent Germany at this summer’s Euros, despite not playing for Manchester United since March.

Sami Khedira has been wearing the captain’s armband in Schweinsteiger’s absence and, as a player guaranteed of starting, will likely continue to this summer. However, Khedira claims regardless of who wears the armband, Schweinsteiger is the captain.

I’m getting tired of questions about the captaincy. Bastian is our captain. It doesn’t change anything if I wear the captain’s armband or not. Obviously it’s an honour to captain the German national team.

Basti is very focused and he left a good impression in his first training match. He still has a few days. We are all very glad to have him on board with us.

Khedira has also spoken about Germany’s chances at the Euros as well as the options they have in midfield.

I played in defensive midfield in Augsburg, but at Juventus I played slightly more attacking. With Bastian, Toni or Mesut and also with Joshua Kimmich and Julian Weigl, who’ve made a great impression here with us, we have a lot of options for this position as basically any of these players can play in midfield.

Like in 2014, we simply have to accept the terms that we are facing. Our group opponents Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland will all try to catch us on the wrong foot.

We can’t complain even if our opponents play defensive with all 11 players. We know that there is a lot of hard work left to be done and that we will face a headwind at times. We are not dreamers, but we are thinking positively ahead of this tournament. Our work in training is extremely focused.