Germany coach Joachim Loew has responded to his mounting injury list by giving youth a chance in next Wednesday's Euro 2012 warm-up friendly against France.
Germany host the French in Bremen and this is Loew's last chance to look at prospective players for Euro 2012, to be hosted by the Ukraine and Poland, before he names his final 23-man squad in May.
Loew is without four first-choice names in vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger (ankle), teenage midfield star Mario Goetze (groin), forward Lukas Podolski (foot) and defender Per Mertesacker (ankle).
To compensate, 22-year-old twins Lars and Sven Bender have been called up into the midfield from Bayer Levrkusen and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
Dortmund's Mats Hummels, Schalke's Benedikt Hoewdes and Bayern Munich's Jerome Boateng, all 23, will be competing for the centre-back berths in defence.
Borussia Moenchengladbach attacking midfielder Marco Reus, 22, is also included on the back of strong performances in the German league where he has scored 13 goals in 20 Bundesliga games this season.
"Despite the injuries, there is no initiative to make big changes," said Loew at a press conference in the capital.
"Even if the door is not completely closed yet, there are still a few players we are looking at for the European Championships.
"The preparations for previous tournaments has shown that it makes little sense to give a detailed prognosis of who will ultimately be in the squad in February.
"We only have to give our final decision before we leave for the tournament."
Real Madrid midfielders Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil are also included, while upfront Loew has named three strikers in Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez, Stuttgart's Cacau and Miroslav Klose of Rome.
Klose has made 113 appearances for his country and with 63 goals to his credit, is just five short of the all-time German record number of goals.
Germany have drawn Portugal, the Netherlands and Denmark in Group B at Euro 2012 and are amongst the favourites to win their fourth European title, but Loew is comfortable with the growing expectations here.
"Of course, we are aware that the expectations of German fans are very, very high," said Loew, whose team won all 10 of the qualification games.
"After our strong qualification campaign, the team can hold their heads a little higher, but I assume our young players have a head for heights.
"We have made great strides and we can measure ourselves with the best teams in the world after victories against England, Argentina, Brazil and the Netherlands.
"We have shown we can keep playing with all the top teams."
This will be the first meeting between France and Germany since 2005 and the French have had the better of the encounters with 10 wins, compared to Germany's seven and six draws.
"Of course, we want to win the game against France, but in view of the European Championships, the result is not very important," said Loew.
"We lost before the 2006 World Cup to Italy and before the 2010 World Cup we were beaten by Argentina.
"It had no negative impact on our tournament form."
Germany squad
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern München), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen)
Defenders: Dennis Aogo (Hamburg), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Christian Traesch (VfL Wolfsburg), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund)
Midfielders: Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid/ESP), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Ozil (Real Madrid/ESP), Marco Reus (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Andre Schuerrle (Bayer Leverkusen)
Forwards: Mario Gomez (Bayern München), Miroslav Klose (Lazio Rome/ITA), Cacau (VfB Stuttgart)
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