Berlin - Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack has been named in the Germany squad for Wednesday night's friendly against Austria in Vienna and is set to make his first international appearance for almost a year.
The 31-year-old last played for Germany in their Euro 2008 qualifier against the Czech Republic in Prague in March 2007, but an ankle injury in Chelsea's Premier League clash with Newcastle last April kept him out until December.
Ballack is set to win his 78th cap as coach Joachim Loew names an almost full-strength side with only Werder Bremen midfielder Torsten Frings and Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder missing.
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Bayern Munich's striker Lukas Podolski is amongst the midfielders, despite suffering a slipped disc earlier this month, as Loew looks to continue the experiment of playing the 22-year-old as an attacking midfielder.
Schalke pair, midfielder Jermaine Jones and defender Heiko Westermann, are the only uncapped players in the 20-man squad.
Loew has named Arsenal's Jens Lehmann and Valencia's Timo Hildebrand as his goalkeepers, despite neither man being their club's first-choice goalkeeper.
And there are four strikers with Germany's footballer of 2007 Mario Gomez, who scored a hat-trick for VfB Stuttgart in midweek, joining first-choice pairing Bayern Munich's Miroslav Klose and Schalke's Kevin Kuranyi.
Second division Borussia Moenchengladbach striker Oliver Neuville is also named.
The game is part of Germany's warm-up internationals against Switzerland on March 26 and Belarus on May 27 before June's Euro 2008 tournament.
Germany squad
Goalkeepers: Timo Hildebrand (Valencia/ESP), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal/ENG)
Defenders: Gonzalo Castro (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Friedrich (Bayer Leverkusen), Roberto Hilbert (VfB Stuttgart), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Per Mertsacker (Werder Bremen), Heinko Westermann (Schalke 04)
Midfielders: Michael Ballack (Chelsea/ENG), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04), Lukas Podolski (Bayern Munich), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Bernd Schneider (Bayer Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg)
Forwards: Mario Gomez (VfB Stuttgart), Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich), Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke 04), Oliver Neuville (Borussia Moechengladbach)
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