One of the most talented forwards of his generation has missed key tournaments through injury but hopes this year, finally, it will be different

This article is part of the Guardian’s 2018 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 32 countries who have qualified for Russia. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 14 June.

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There were only three minutes remaining of the first half of the low-key friendly between Germany and Armenia in June 2014. It was still goalless and, since it was the day before Die Mannschaft were due to leave for Brazil, the players were holding back a little. Marco Reus, however, was chasing down an Armenian defender near the penalty area when, to the horror of the crowd, he fell to the floor, screamed and pounded his hand against the grass in agony.

The Borussia Dortmund forward had torn his ankle ligaments. Ten hours later and the Germany squad set off for Brazil without him. Five weeks later, as they lifted the World Cup, they also held his shirt in the air.



But it is not only the Brazil World Cup that Reus has missed. Injury after injury has followed and the player, who can justifiably be described as one of the most talented forwards of his generation, has sadly become one of the most unfortunate too.



He is 29 now and he has played only 30 times for Germany. In addition he has, remarkably, only won one title, the 2017 German Cup. Yet, here he is, on the brink of playing in a World Cup again and there is hope in Germany that luck can finally turn for the likeable Reus.

The national team coach, Joachim Löw, is a huge admirer and has been showering the 29-year-old with praise in the build-up to Russia. “He is incredibly skilful, intelligent as a player and can always surprise his opponent,” he said recently. “It all seems so, so easy for him but it comes from his exceptional timing. He is an extremely good passer and an outstanding finisher.”



Reus, added Löw, is like a “rocket” and praise does not come higher than that from a coach who loves speed. The two have always got on and their working relationship could have been so much more fruitful had it not been for the injuries.



It was May 2010 when Löw called up Reus to one of his squads for the first time. That time, the player had to withdraw because of a muscle injury. The next time Löw tried, in August that same year, Reus was ill. In May and September the following year there were another two attempts but both failed too because of injuries. It was not until October 2011, more than a year after he was first called up, that Reus actually got to wear the Germany shirt as he played against Turkey in a Euro 2012 qualifier.



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At the Euros in Poland and Ukraine Reus was a bit-player and then came Brazil. He returned in September 2014 but broke down again, this time on international duty, against Scotland, again tearing his ligaments. And the list continues.



Before Euro 2016 in France, he suffered an adductor injury in the last club game of the season, the German Cup final against Bayern Munich. He still travelled with the national team in the hope that he would be fit for the tournament but the team – but it was in vain. Löw spoke of a “personal tragedy”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marco Reus leaves the pitch against Armenia in June 2014 with an injury that ruled him out of the World Cup that year. Photograph: Micha Will/Bongarts/Getty Images

The injuries have also affected his club career and have stopped him from fulfilling his undoubted talent. The Dortmund CEO, Hans-Joachim Watzke, has always had high hopes for Reus and spoke once about the player being able to “define an era for the club, in the way that Uwe Seeler did at Hamburg and Steven Gerrard at Liverpool”.



Reus, the son of a locksmith and an office clerk, grew up in Dortmund and supported BVB as a child. But then came the heartbreaking news: Dortmund let him go. He was too weak and too small, they said then. He would be back, though. First he moved to the then second-division side Ahlen, half an hour away in the car, and from there he moved to Borussia Mönchengladbach. He became more and more influential and after he was crowned German footballer of the year in 2012, moved back to Dortmund.



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The fans love him and suffer with him. Since his return he has missed 99 games. In 2014 he was out for four months, two years later he missed half a year and then, in the 2017 German Cup final, he tore his cruciate ligament. The following eight months were the longest time he had been out and he said during that time that he would “give up all the money to be fit and to be able to do my job, to do what I love: to play football.”



And that is why no other German footballer will be travelling to Russia with a bigger desire to do well than Reus. And it is also why the German public wants him, more than anyone else in the squad, to have a good tournament and that his body does not let him down again.



Christoph Biermann writes for 11Freunde.



Follow him on Twitter here.