Borussia Dortmund attacking midfielder Mario Gotze plans to use his World Cup snub as motivation to push himself to new heights.
Gotze scored the extra-time winner as Germany overcame Argentina 1-0 in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil, but his career has since tailed off due to injuries and metabolic disturbances .
The 26-year-old managed 23 Bundesliga appearances in 2017-18, just two fewer than he accumulated across the previous two campaigns.
However, he was unable to earn a place in Joachim Low s squad for Russia 2018 and found it tough to take.
I have to grow from that. I have to accept it as an experience that can help me tackle the future and reach the next level, Gotze told Welt am Sonntag.
I knew about it a day beforehand, but I had a feeling before that. When I was not selected for the friendlies against Spain and Brazil at the end of March I thought it could happen.
So it was not completely surprising for me, but it was still hard.
We trained 2 times a day in the last 4 weeks. Mainly with the ball, which of course is my favorite training
— Mario Götze (@MarioGoetze)
Germany s defence came to a shock end in the group stage when they went down 2-0 to South Korea, having bounced back from an opening loss to Mexico by beating Sweden.
It represented Germany s earliest World Cup exit since 1938, but Gotze warned against being too critical of the team.
After the win against Sweden I thought, Yes, now they are on track. It s hard to judge why it didn t work, he said.
But I don t think you should speak badly of the team now, because they were simply too successful in recent years and will probably be back in the future. We shouldn t forget that.
